WASHINGTON -- True to his campaign song "No Surrender" by Bruce Springsteen, former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry said although he lost the race, he's not giving up the fight.

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Janet Wu Talks To Kerry

In fact, NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu reported, he's not ruling out running again.

For the first time since his concession speech at Boston's Faneuil Hall, Kerry sat down for one-on-one interviews on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

Wu said Kerry's explanation for his loss was simple.

"I think war, fear. It is very hard to unseat a president. No one has ever done it in history during a war," he said.

In his hideaway just steps from the Senate chamber, Kerry denied that he failed to give voters a clear reason to vote for him.

"I think they are dead wrong," he said. "Better jobs, the jobs that are going overseas are pretty clear messages; health care for all Americans is a pretty clear message; energy independence is a pretty clear message; restoring America's respect is pretty clear," he said. "I won more votes in Ohio and in Florida than Bill Clinton or Al Gore did when they won both states. We turned out more people; we had an extraordinary ground operation. We just didn't get quite as many as they did. It is very hard when you are preaching fear to people to break through."

"Did you fail to act quickly when attacked by the Swift Boat Veterans?" asked Wu.

"Those were damnable lies. They were part of a Republican smear campaign of fear," he said.

"When you see the post-election map and there's that giant sea of red right smack in the middle of the country, does that tell you that Democrats are out of step with most Americans, as some folks are saying?" asked Wu.

"Not at all. What it tells me is that we have to work on communicating with those folks. A lot of those states are not really Red States, they are purple, in a sense. There is a lot of blue in them. And we won legislatures in a lot of those states," he said.

Kerry made it clear his mission now is to keep a high national profile in the Senate. His top priorities include health care for children, increasing the minimum wage and watching the White House.

"This administration is digging a debt hole that is frightening and I think it is very damaging to long-term prospects for our economy," he said.

Wu said the senator clearly threw the doors wide open to another presidential run.

"You know they haven't finished counting the votes in Ohio yet, and so it is way to early to start talking about another race. But I will tell you this -- I'm far from finished fighting. I'm passionate about these issues. As I say, 50,000 votes and we'd be in a different place with a different conversation.