Try not to look too far ahead, but keep your eyes on the future.

No offense to anyone running for a political office. If it interferes with you day job then quit or you should be fired.

I'm going to pick on Senator Kerry. It's not a partisan call but it's about ALL politicians. If you can't do your job then let someone else do it. Millions are depending on you.
Senator Kerry has proven that you don't need to do anything to be a U.S. Senator. What a scam these 100 people have on the rest of us! Of course, Senator Kerry is the worst senator in the 2004 Senate. This is not a subjective statement but an objective one.

Here are Senator John Kerry's Records for 2004 Attendance during voting on resolutions and bills and other issues of legislation.

Since January 1st, there have been 130 issues so far (not including Judicial nominations which I haven't counted).
John Kerry missed all 5 votes in January.
John Kerry missed all 15 votes in February.
John Kerry showed up for work on March 2, voted on 6 of the 7 issues on the day, came back March 10 voted on another 5, came back March 25 and voted on 2. In total he voted on 13 issues. However, he missed 25 other votes in March. Therefore, he voted in 13 of 38 issues.
John Kerry missed all 13 votes in April.
John Kerry missed all 22 votes in May.
John Kerry missed the first 16 votes in June including one to honor former President Reagan but made himself available on June 22nd for 3 votes. He subsequently missed the last 14 of the votes for the month.
He has missed all 4 votes in July.

So, John Kerry has missed 114 of 130 votes in the Senate this year. To put a positive spin on it, he voted in 12.3% of all issues (not including Judicial confirmations).
He showed up for 4 days so far this year.

Now I am not picking on Kerry because he is a Democrat. If ANYONE had a record like that he or she should be released for failure to do their job. The people, in his case, of Massachusetts deserves someone who is willing to vote for their interests. There were several close votes that he missed.

To prove my point, I checked into the voting record of the previous Senator that ran for his party's nomination for President which was Bob Dole. He eventually dropped out of the Senate a month before the election but should he have dropped out of the Senate much earlier for the sake of his state of Kansas.

Taking the same period of time (January through the 2nd week of June) the Senate votes on 173 issues (not counting Judicial confirmations). Of these Dole missed 14. Or to put a positive spin, he made 91.9% of the votes while running for President.

Unfortunately, the roll call records on the internet only go back to 1989 so there are no other prime examples of voting records by a party's Presidential candidates who were still members of Congress.