Home > Invoking His Past, Kerry Vows to Command ’a Nation at War’
Invoking His Past, Kerry Vows to Command ’a Nation at War’
by Open-Publishing - Saturday 31 July 2004By ADAM NAGOURNEY
BOSTON, July 29 - John Forbes Kerry accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday night, pledging to "restore trust and credibility to the White House" as he accused President Bush of misleading the nation into war and pursuing policies that he described as a threat to the economy, the Constitution and the nation’s standing in the world.
Mr. Kerry, speaking in a convention hall that was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with delegates and other Democrats two and a half hours before he strode in, promised to take charge of "a nation at war.’’ He invoked his service in Vietnam 35 years ago as he vowed to protect Americans from terrorism in the 21st century.
"I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as president," Mr. Kerry said. "Let there be no mistake: I will never hesitate to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and a certain response."
But more than reinforcing his own credentials as a wartime president, Mr. Kerry used this speech on Thursday - to what was certainly the largest audience the four-term senator from Massachusetts has ever faced - to offer a blistering critique of Mr. Bush’s 42 months in office, going so far as to echo one of the signature attacks Mr. Bush used against Bill Clinton when he ran in 2000 by challenging Mr. Bush’s honesty.
"We have it in our power to change the world, but only if we’re true to our ideals - and that starts by telling the truth to the American people," Mr. Kerry said, speaking rapidly over repeated cheers from his audience. "As president, that is my first pledge to you tonight. As president, I will restore trust and credibility to the White House.
"I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war. I will have a vice president who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a secretary of defense who will listen to the advice of the military leaders. And I will appoint an attorney general who upholds the Constitution of the United States."
For anyone watching the proceedings on this last night of the 44th Democratic convention, there could be little doubt about the urgent and complicated tasks Mr. Kerry faced as he walked into the FleetCenter: to convince the nation’s voters that he could match Mr. Bush’s credentials as a wartime president, that he was tough enough to use force when needed and that they should turn out a president in the middle of the war. In fact, the entire speech was built around the idea that Mr. Kerry is a more trustworthy custodian of American security than the president he wants to replace.
In striking contrast to Democratic acceptance speeches going back a generation, Mr. Kerry’s was from start to finish heavily weighted toward foreign affairs and national security, underlining the urgency Mr. Kerry sees in trying to compete with Mr. Bush on that terrain as the men fight a political campaign against the backdrop of a war in Iraq and the threat of another terrorist attack.
Mr. Kerry saluted his audience when he walked in, and took in a hall fluttering with Kerry placards affixed with American flags, as Democrats sought with this convention to appropriate what is typically Republican imagery.
And the gauzy introductions leading up to his arrival - folksy and personal tributes from his two daughters, a Hollywood biographic video, war stories from one of his buddies from Vietnam - signaled another goal of his convention: to provide a softer view of a politician whose own friends describe him as cool and distant. As Mr. Kerry came here to accept his party’s nomination, he confronted polls that showed him and Mr. Bush locked in a tie, but with signs that Americans, while unhappy with Mr. Bush, were not prepared to turn the White House over to a man that Mr. Bush has sought to diminish as liberal and unprincipled.
The speech brought an end to one of the most peaceful and united Democratic conventions in 50 years and ushered in what will be an extraordinarily busy month of politicking before the Republican National Convention in New York. Mr. Kerry heads out of Boston on Friday for a two-week cross-country bus trip.
Mr. Bush, not wasting a moment, is heading out on his own trip to the Midwest on Friday; aides said he would use the trip to unveil proposals to help the nation adjust to the economic strains of this new century.