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New York Times - July 27, 2004 Democrats offer a simple message aimed at the middle By ROBIN TONER BOSTON, July 26 - Franklin Roosevelt spoke of the "forgotten man," Bill Clinton of the "forgotten middle class." Now the Democratic Party of Senator John Kerry is reaching for that long - and politically successful - legacy with a promise to ease the "middle-class squeeze" and restore the booming economy of the Clinton years. To that end, the Democratic National Convention on Monday night offered a simple message about the economy: It was better under the Democrats. The middle class had a brighter future. And Mr. Kerry has a plan to restore middle-class prosperity - to stem the loss of jobs overseas, to ease the burden of rising health, education and energy costs on families, to get the nation's fiscal house and economy in order. Indeed, it was Bill Clinton himself who stood before a national television audience on Monday night and made the case, as he did so often in 1992, that the economic future need not be feared - and that the Democrats offered a better choice when it came to tax and budget policy. He scoffed at the Republicans' decision to give big tax cuts to wealthy Americans like himself while, he asserted, shortchanging critical national needs like education. He criticized the Republicans for turning a huge surplus into a deficit. Again and again, he said voters faced a choice. If they liked the status quo, he said, stick with the Republicans. If not, he said, "take a look at John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democrats - we've got a very different economic policy.'' "Our way works better,'' he said. It was not the party's only message. More than any other Democratic nominee in recent years, Mr. Kerry has run on national security issues, and the steady drumbeat from this convention is the promise of an America "stronger at home, and respected in the world." Former President Jimmy Carter told the convention that "the biggest reason to make John Kerry president'' was to "safeguard the security of our nation.'' Others echoed the point. But in the swing states that will decide the general election this fall, the economy remains a central issue. So speaker after speaker, from a steel worker in Canton, Ohio, to members of the House and Senate to Mr. Clinton and his vice president, Al Gore, made the case that the nation needed more - and better paying - jobs, a shift in national priorities, a return to Democratic economic policies..... http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/27/politics/campaign/27assess.html?hp New York Times - July 27, 2004 Clinton assails Bush as Democrats open convention By ADAM NAGOURNEY BOSTON, July 26 - Former President Bill Clinton opened the Democratic National Convention on Monday with a systematic challenge to President Bush's leadership, using humor and a piercing attack to argue that Mr. Bush had unraveled a prosperous and well-respected nation that Mr. Clinton left him four years ago. For nearly 30 minutes, Mr. Clinton held command over an arena packed with Democratic delegates, prompting laughter, cheers and finally roars of approval with a speech that attacked the wisdom of Mr. Bush's tax cuts, how he had managed the war in Iraq, and his attempt to portray John Kerry as a weak leader who would not protect the nation against terrorism. He said Mr. Bush's policies had lost him respect abroad, and produced an economy imperiled by tax cuts that had forced ruinous cuts in spending on education, health care and spending on police. "We tried it their way for 12 years, we tried it our way for eight, and then we tried it their way for four more," Mr. Clinton said, a grin breaking out across his face. "By the only test that matters - whether people were better off when we were finished than when we started - our way worked better." Drawing one of his biggest ovations of the night, Mr. Clinton mocked what he said was Mr. Bush's attempt to say that "we should be afraid of John Kerry and John Edwards because they won't stand up to the terror." "Don't you believe it.'' he said. "Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.'' Mr. Clinton's prime-time speech instantly dominated a convention that featured two ex-presidents and an almost-president. And for all of Mr. Kerry's expressed desires that the convention downplay attacks on Mr. Bush, delegates by the end of the night had in the three speeches heard a full-throated case against Mr. Bush's policies - though one often leavened by unthreatening language and expressions of respect for a sitting president. Al Gore, who archly said he had hoped to be here to accept his party's nomination for a second term, urged Democrats to remember his defeat of 2000, but focus their anger "on putting John Kerry and John Edwards in the White House." Former President Jimmy Carter, invoking his foreign policy triumph of 25 years ago, harshly attacked President Bush as he declared the "achievements of Camp David a quarter-century ago and the more recent progress made by President Bill Clinton are now in peril" because of policies of Mr. Bush that allowed the Middle East to be "swept by anti-American passions." Taken together, the speeches spanned more than a quarter-century of Democratic Party history, and offered Mr. Clinton, Mr. Gore and Mr. Carter an opportunity to contrast their records with President Bush. The prominence of their positions - on the opening night of the convention - signaled the extent to which Mr. Kerry, unlike the men who appeared here on Monday, intends to embrace the records of past Democratic presidents….. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/27/politics/campaign/27campaign.final.html Washington Post - July 27, 2004 In Boston, a ringing call for change By Dan Balz To a chorus of cheers and sustained applause, Clinton called the 2004 election a stark choice between two major political parties with deeply held and fundamentally different views of how to meet challenges at home and abroad. "We Democrats want to build a world and an America of shared responsibilities and shared opportunities . . . where we act alone only when we have to," he said. Republicans, Clinton added, "believe in an America run by the right people -- their people -- in a world in which America acts unilaterally when we can and cooperates when we have to." Clinton staunchly defended the Massachusetts senator, saying that when young men such as himself, Bush and Vice President Cheney found ways to avoid going to Vietnam, Kerry volunteered for service there. And he mocked Bush and the GOP for suggesting that Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), would be soft on terrorism. "Strength and wisdom are not opposing values," he said. "They go hand in hand." With Kerry and Edwards campaigning their way to Boston through battleground states, the opening-night program also featured former president Jimmy Carter, former vice president Al Gore and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.). The Democratic luminaries sent a jolt of energy through Boston's FleetCenter that got the convention off on the high note that organizers had hoped for. Gore opened his speech with humor about his fate in the 2000 election and then issued an appeal to both those who backed Bush four years ago and those who supported third-party candidate Ralph Nader, urging them to reconsider what their actions had meant for the country. "I want to say to all Americans this evening that whether it is the threat to the global environment or the erosion of America's leadership in the world, whether it is the challenge to our economy from new competitors or the challenge to our security from new enemies, I believe we need new leadership that is both strong and wise," Gore said. Carter was even more pointed in his critique of Bush's record. "The United States has alienated its allies, dismayed its friends and inadvertently gratified its enemies by proclaiming a confused and disturbing strategy of preemptive war," he said. "With our allies disunited, the world resenting us and the Middle East ablaze, we need John Kerry to restore life to the global war against terrorism." Despite claims by Kerry campaign officials and Democratic Party leaders that this convention would accentuate the positive, the first night's speeches echoed the same criticisms of Bush that Kerry, Edwards and other candidates for the Democratic nomination have sounded throughout the campaign. But with Kerry in an extremely tight contest with Bush and seeking to use the four-day gathering to flesh out his political profile and convince voters that he is fit to serve as commander in chief in a time of terrorism, Monday's speakers also sought to highlight what they described as Kerry's courage and fitness to lead and said he would provide a needed contrast to the leadership style of the incumbent president. "He will lead the world, not alienate it," Hillary Clinton said. "Lower the deficit, not raise it. Create good jobs, not lose them. Solve a health care crisis, not ignore it." The 44th Democratic convention marked the first major party convention since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the extraordinary security around FleetCenter and throughout this historic city offered a reminder to the dramatically altered landscape on which the 2004 election is being fought…… http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15605-2004Jul26.html Washington Post - July 27, 2004 Kucinich contingent, not going away quietly By Richard Leiby The liberal congressman from Ohio has fallen in line behind the party standard-bearer, but there's talk here that many of his 67 delegates will go off-message in a symbolic floor protest. "I am voting for Dennis Kucinich because I want people to know where I stand. I want that vote to go down in history," declared Charlene Coates, 33, a Cleveland poet who wants to pull U.S. troops from Iraq. "Our vote will just say 'present' because his name is not on the ballot." While playing down reports that the antiwar activists were "in revolt" against Kerry, fellow Kucinich delegate Jessica Beckett, 19, a Seattle student, reminded us: "We're Democrats. We don't march in lockstep." (How refreshing!) A couple hundred activists roared approval yesterday inside sweltering St. Paul's Cathedral as the Rev. Jesse Jackson took the pulpit to support the man he called "Brother Dennis." Said Jackson: "It's time to bring the troops home and send George Bush home!" Afterward, Kucinich told us, "I respect my delegates" for wanting to lodge protest votes. But, sounding very on-message, he predicted: "We are all going to leave this convention united for John Kerry."..... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16800-2004Jul26.html Los Angeles Times - July 27, 2004 Democrats talk up Kerry while confronting Bush By Ronald Brownstein BOSTON — Day One of the Democratic National Convention underscored Sen. John F. Kerry's determination to challenge President Bush on national security while emphasizing a deeply personal contrast rooted in their divergent experiences during the Vietnam era. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-assess27jul27,1,6855003.story?coll=la-home-politics Chicago Tribune – July 27, 2004 Clinton returns to stage, trumpets call for Kerry By Jeff Zeleny BOSTON -- A Democratic Party bound by hopeful unity opened its nominating convention Monday with former President Bill Clinton forcefully arguing that voters face a clear choice between the principled direction of John Kerry and an ideological Republican Party that uses wealth and moral certitude to divide the nation. The Christian Science Monitor – July 27, 2004 First step for Democrats: rousing the faithful By Brad Knickerbocker His name was barely mentioned, but President Bush may have had the biggest role in Monday night's kickoff to the Democratic National Convention. The man who four years ago pledged to be a "a uniter, not a divider" acted as the unseen glue, bringing together a star-studded array of Democratic leaders determined to make him a one-term president. How well did the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Bill Clinton do Monday night toward that end? The next 100 days will tell. But it's the next three days – leading up to John Kerry's speech accepting his party's nomination – that could be most crucial. With the country starkly polarized, Kerry needs to show that he's a solid alternative to Bush – not only to that thin sliver of undecided voters but also to those moderate Republicans who may be sufficiently put off by a GOP they feel leans too sharply toward the Christian right and neoconservatives. The first step in that effort is rousing the Democratic faithful, getting them energized, not just in opposition to Bush, but with enthusiastic support for Kerry. More than four months after dominant primary victories secured his nomination, Kerry remains largely unknown. Monday night's convention events sought to paint the Kerry portrait to the nation - or at least its politically minded television viewers - adding brush strokes of strength, competence, experience, and vision to the Massachusetts senator's persona. If there was going to be a red-meat speech Monday night, Al Gore seemed most likely to give it. Unrestrained by any chance that his political career might be revived, he's been breathing fire in his recent speeches. Bashing Bush for alleged lies, deceits, and general mismanagement of the country in a time of war, he has growled and bellowed his message in a manner Howard Dean, whom he first endorsed, might have found admirable. But Monday night he was a subdued ex-vice president, offering relatively gentle criticisms of the incumbent whom he never mentioned by name. It was left to Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter to wage war on the Bush II presidency. Speaking with quiet fury, Mr. Carter noted how the days after 9/11 had brought "an unprecedented level of cooperation and understanding around the world." "But in just 34 months, we have watched with deep concern as all this goodwill has been squandered by a virtually unbroken series of mistakes and miscalculations," he said. "Unilateral acts and demands have isolated the United States from the very nations we need to join us in combating terrorism." Keynote speaker Bill Clinton, too, took apart the Bush record, although like everyone else Monday night, he never uttered the president's name. Clinton's legacy will always be controversial, whether you see him as having sullied the office in immoral fashion or as the victim of a "right-wing conspiracy." Having the former president get the major chunk of prime-time TV Monday night was a gamble for Kerry. In his own way, Clinton was – and still is for some – as polarizing as Bush. Still, Clinton's point-by-point exposition of US politics today – laying out the fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans – was as clear a description of the coming fight as is likely to be heard this week. And like all the speakers, Clinton kept turning the issues back to Kerry as being the man who has what it takes to redirect a nation that, according to one recent poll, 48 percent of Americans feel is on the wrong track. In a way, all of this – the picture of unity, the rousing of the faithful for the fight, the image of the party as broadly representative of the country – is commonly considered to be political kabuki, highly-scripted and choreographed. Television has made it so, as has the lack of any real competition or doubt about convention outcomes. It's been that way for at least a generation. The assembled delegates – replete with ridiculous hats and dancing – reinforced the night's theme: unity of purpose and diversity of audience, with lots of women (including a special tribute to female Democrats in the US Senate), and lots of racial and ethnic minorities. Kerry's job is to close the gap between the 47 percent who say they will vote for him, and the 53 percent who say they want someone other than Bush….. http://www.csmonitor.com/earlyed/early_usa0727.htm Washington Post - July 27, 2004 Political past and present meet in Boston By John F. Harris John F. Kennedy, had he lived, would now be 87. In the four decades since his death, Democratic conventions have always had a moment when the party stops to pay homage to a martyred president. Never, though, has there been quite the same convergence -- a harmonic one, Democrats hope -- of political past and present as here in Boston, with the JFK legacy hovering over the proceedings. Three generations of Kennedys have gone through many seasons of turmoil and renewal in the 44 years since the 16-year-old Kerry experienced a political crush. Concern with how the legacy resonates -- whether it evokes images of public service or private scandal, timeless idealism or an antiquated liberalism -- was one reason some Democrats were wary about coming to Boston. The rush of Kennedy reminiscence underscores the ambiguous influence the 35th president has had on the politicians who came in his wake. His luminescent image and idealistic calls to service inspired a generation of ambitious Democratic candidates -- but in a variety of political and even psychological ways have also been a burden. Despite the controversies that have swirled since Kennedy's death -- well-documented accounts of adultery, public deception over the state of his health and continuing debate over whether he led the country astray in Vietnam -- surveys routinely place him at or near the top of 20th century presidents in public esteem, noted historian Robert Dallek, the author of a recent Kennedy biography. Because of the mythology that grew after Kennedy's death, he said, the question for any current Democrat is, "How do you measure up? It's not something easy to live up to." Among many voters -- the youngest eligible to cast ballots this year were born in 1986 -- it is not clear the late president evokes any emotional connection...... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16547-2004Jul26.html Washington Post - July 27, 2004 Voters want more specifics from Kerry By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane The survey suggests that the stakes for Kerry and the Democrats as they began their convention in Boston could not be higher. In barely a month, Kerry has lost ground to President Bush on every top voting issue in this year's election. A growing proportion of voters say Bush and not Kerry is the candidate who most closely shares their values, and four in 10 believe the Democrat is "too liberal." Bush has even narrowed the gap on which candidate better understands their problems, an area in which Kerry has led. The poll suggests that negative ads by the Bush-Cheney campaign that have been airing since early March, as well as attacks by Republican officials, have been increasingly successful in planting the image of Kerry as an unreliable leader who flip-flops on the issues -- perceptions that Democrats will work hard to reverse at their convention. Kerry's advisers down played the results of the Post-ABC poll, asserting that the senator from Massachusetts enters the convention stronger than other recent challengers to incumbent presidents. But they agreed that the four-day gathering in Boston represents a critical opportunity for Kerry to flesh out what is still a partial portrait of his candidacy and said that his chance to communicate directly with voters will pay dividends..... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16026-2004Jul26.html |