Home > Edwards Gives Strong Tribute as Democrats Nominate Kerry
By ROBIN TONER and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Senator John Edwards, summoning all his skills as a trial lawyer and a populist, made an impassioned case for Senator John Kerry on Wednesday, hailing him as a battle-tested veteran ready to be commander in chief and a man who could restore economic hope and opportunity.
"Hope is on the way," Mr. Edwards declared to a cheering Democratic National Convention.
The heart of Mr. Edwards’s speech was the theme he sounded throughout his primary campaign, that "we still live in a country where there are two different Americas," one for people who "are set for life," the other for "most Americans who live from paycheck to paycheck." He proudly recounted his own rise as the son of a millworker, paying tribute to his emotional parents in the convention hall, and made the case for a return to Democratic economic and domestic policies to "build one America."
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But Mr. Edwards, who will officially become the Democratic nominee for vice president on Thursday, also tried to make a simple but politically crucial point: that Mr. Kerry, criticized by Republicans as too risky and untested to be a wartime president, is made of sterner stuff, with strong values that he demonstrated even as a young Swift boat commander in Vietnam.
After Mr. Edwards spoke, the convention delegates proceeded through the traditional roll call of states to nominate Mr. Kerry, each state officially delivering its votes even though the nominee has been known for months. Delegates in Ohio, an important swing state, got the honor of putting Mr. Kerry over the top, with the declaration that the nominee would, in an echo of President Bill Clinton’s phrase, serve "the middle-class Ohioans that get up every day, work hard and play by the rules."
In a soaring tribute, Mr. Edwards said that Mr. Kerry’s crewmates 35 years ago "saw up close what he’s made of." He added: "They saw him reach down and pull one of his men to safety and save his life. They saw him in the heat of battle; they saw him decide in an instant to turn his boat around, drive it straight through an enemy position and chase down the enemy to save his crew.
"Decisive. Strong. Is this not what we need in a commander in chief?"
Rarely was the impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war with Iraq more apparent on American politics, as Democrats rolled out a series of testimonials from leaders in the military establishment, comrades of Mr. Kerry from Vietnam and a chorus of elected officials. The testimony was aimed at what many consider Mr. Kerry’s principal vulnerability in his fiercely competitive race with President Bush: that voters still tend to trust Mr. Bush more to keep them safe, according to polls.
Mr. Edwards assured the nation that a Kerry administration would pursue terrorists.
"You cannot run," Mr. Edwards said of terrorists. "You cannot hide. We will destroy you."
Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now retired, and one of a dozen retired top military officials who have endorsed Mr. Kerry, declared, "I stand here as an old soldier and a new Democrat." The general said that he believed in Mr. Kerry, and particularly believed that "no one will be more resolute in defending America nor in pursuing terrorists than John Kerry."
In one of the evening’s several implicit references to Mr. Bush’s lack of combat experience, General Shalikashvili said of Mr. Kerry, "He knows from experience a commander’s responsibility to his troops." When he finished, most of Mr. Kerry’s leading military supporters appeared on stage in a striking tableau.
Mr. Edwards’s speech, while focused in part on Mr. Kerry, was also an effort to introduce himself to the American public after a meteoric six-year political rise: from successful trial lawyer to senator to one of his party’s stars. He returned to the sunny populism of his unsuccessful primary campaign, even while accusing the Republicans of "doing all they can to take this campaign for the highest office in the land down the lowest possible road."
He implored voters to reject what he called the "tired, old, hateful, negative politics of the past" and instead embrace the hope that he and Mr. Kerry offered. Again and again, he returned to the refrain "hope is on the way." And the Democratic delegates, who revel in economic populism as part of their party’s proudest traditions, chanted along.
Tommy A. Maynard, a delegate from Nashville, said: "I’m from Music City and I know a good song when I hear it. I am hearing it tonight. This man has talent and is going places. He talks about down home issues that anyone can relate to."
Al Hanna, a delegate from Ridgeway, S.C., said: "The man is talking plain language everyone in America can understand. He is bringing America together."