[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: John Kerry Speaks

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John Kerry Speaks

July 30, 2004
 


 

Speakers at the Democratic convention were told to stay
positive, but when John Kerry delivered his acceptance
speech last night, his best moments came on the attack. His
depiction of a Bush administration that misled the public
into war did a fine job of rousing the faithful. 

Modern presidential campaigns are all about expectations,
and in many ways, Mr. Kerry had the advantage of a fairly
low bar when he entered Boston's FleetCenter last night.
America was already pretty well aware that it is not going
to fall in love with him. But in tough times, the public
loses interest in the president as a celebrity and yearns
for solidity, trustworthiness and sensible judgment. Mr.
Kerry was shooting for that standard. "I defended this
country as a young man, and I will defend it as
president,'' he promised. 

The story of Mr. Kerry's performance in combat is a
powerful one. But Republicans are going to accuse him of
overselling a rather brief episode in his career, and he is
going to have to be careful to devote time to the rest of
his résumé as well. Last night the public got to hear a
little about Mr. Kerry's childhood - the son of a diplomat,
he was once grounded for riding his bike into Communist
East Berlin - and his years in the Senate got at least a
mention. Mr. Kerry's voting record has already been
misinterpreted by his opponents in some ads, and he needs
to discuss it. Biographies that make his few months in
service overseas sound longer than his 19 years in the
Senate will never be convincing. 

Mr. Kerry has been criticized for a lack of specifics, but
he did a good job of explaining how he'd fight the war on
terror: by adopting a more aggressive homeland-security
policy, reforming the intelligence system and refocusing
diplomatic efforts on ending nuclear proliferation. Along
with his belief in strong international alliances to solve
global problems, these form the backbone of his approach to
making America more secure. He did not, however, provide a
clear vision on Iraq. Voters needed to hear him say that he
understands, in retrospect, that his vote to give President
Bush Congressional support to invade was a mistake. It's
clear now that Mr. Kerry isn't going to go there, and it's
a shame. 

Mr. Kerry challenged Mr. Bush to join him in running a
positive, optimistic campaign, but given the vigor with
which he went on the offense, it's likely that we'll be
hearing more about Mr. Bush's failures than Mr. Kerry's
optimistic vision in the weeks ahead. The Kerry-Edwards
team has a lot of interesting, detailed plans for a
domestic agenda, particularly on health care. The promise
to cut middle-class taxes, however, is pure pandering,
given his new spending proposals and commitment to balanced
budgets. 

Mr. Kerry cannily defended his well-known preference for
complex answers by noting the trouble some of President
Bush's simple answers have gotten the country into: "Saying
there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq doesn't make
it so. Saying we can fight a war on the cheap doesn't make
it so. And proclaiming mission accomplished certainly
doesn't make it so." As an introduction to the candidates,
the Democratic convention, on the whole, did its job. Now
Mr. Kerry and John Edwards, who are still almost strangers
to most voters, will need to reinforce their message before
a team the public knows well arrives in New York to defend
its record. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/30/opinion/30fri1.html?ex=1092208843&ei=1&en=01ccc9ef1acc04a1


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