Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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 Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 12:03 pm Post subject: Boston Globe critical of kerry's activities.... |
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Two articles by the Boston Globe -- taking a look at kerry’s character and motives?  .... I have been waiting for this. Looks like the senator should be watching his back….:
(excerpts/emphasis mine)
| Quote: | “Don’t forget us, senator,” by Eileen McNamara, Boston Globe – 5/8/05
If Senator John F. Kerry really wants to influence the Democratic Party in MA, wouldn't he have more impact in Lowell than in Louisiana? The failed Democratic presidential nominee was in Baton Rouge last week when he said it would be a mistake to include a statement of support for gay marriage in the platform of the Massachusetts Democratic Party because the issue is so divisive.
But Kerry himself won't be attending the party's platform convention in Lowell next weekend. He is traveling the country, testing the waters for another White House run. I mean, he's already on the road holding town meetings on children's healthcare needs. <….>
Like Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, Kerry is spending a lot of time these days talking to audiences far from the Merrimack Valley. That might explain why both men find themselves so often misreading the sentiments of the folks back home.<...>
It is easy to fall out of touch with Beacon Hill when you spend so much time dining with political strategists in Washington or courting audiences in Missouri, South Carolina, Michigan, or Utah. These days, the two frequent fliers (Romney & Kerry) look less like potential adversaries for the American presidency in 2008 than tactical twins courting the same bloc of socially conservative voters. In their political calculation for higher office, both men are running away from the one constituency they were elected to serve, the people of Massachusetts. <…>
Kerry's continued determination to distance himself from his liberal roots is even more perplexing. Didn't the presidential campaign confirm that his political makeover was both a lost cause and a losing strategy? Does he really think that his support of civil unions, instead of marriage, for same-sex couples is going to win over voters in the 11 states that passed bans on gay marriages last fall? Does he think Massachusetts voters will forget how they have been ignored when he finally gives up his doomed presidential ambitions and decides to run for reelection in 2008? As he courts heartland conservatives, Kerry is falling more out of step with the state party that nurtured his political career. <…> |
| Quote: | “Kerry adopting the rhetoric of a D.C. outsider,” by Rick Klein, Boston Globe – 5/9/05
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Bruce Springsteen anthem, his theme song, was back -- ''No retreat, baby, no surrender" -- and people were on their feet before his speech began. Wading through the crowd as the music boomed, Senator John F. Kerry looked like a presidential candidate again: smiling, grasping for outstretched arms, and offering thumbs-up as he made his way to the stage. But the attendance was a fraction of the mobs that the Massachusetts Democrat drew in his final campaign rallies last fall. Gone was his stump speech railing against President Bush's Iraq war policy, the sluggish economy, and the Republican agenda; even mentions of Kerry's Senate career and Vietnam War service had disappeared.
Instead, Kerry -- a veteran politician who has held office for 21 years -- took off his suit jacket and roamed a small stage in Louisiana's Old State Capitol to push a new message: Get angry at Washington. ''Washington seems more and more out of touch with the difficulties the average family is facing," Kerry told the crowd of about 150 last week in Baton Rouge. ''Go out of here, take some anger and a little bit of outrage at the fact that Washington is not dealing with the real concerns of our country." Six months after his presidential bid ended in defeat, Kerry is on another cross-country campaign. This time, he is running against the political establishment. <….>
In essence, Kerry is trying to reignite a fire that never quite raged for his presidential bid on behalf of a domestic agenda he is pushing in Congress. He is shooting regular e-mail updates to his network of 3 million supporters. <….> It may seem odd for a man who has been in the Senate for more than two decades -- and who has never been known for his common touch -- to rail against aloof politicians. His presidential campaign focused more on his own record, particularly his service in Vietnam, than on the shortcomings of Washington. The latter tactic was more the realm of Howard Dean, <…>
Just below the surface, though, Kerry is trying to rehabilitate his public image as an entrenched insider, in case another national campaign is in his future. <…>
Although Kerry said he was not in Louisiana to talk about his loss to Bush, the senator was clearly still smarting from the 2004 campaign. He proudly noted that he received 10 million more votes than President Clinton did during his 1996 reelection campaign and suggested that terrorism warnings sounded in the midst of the last campaign may have been exaggerated to help Bush. ''Fight back against the lies, fight back against the distortions," Kerry implored the crowd. ''In the last campaign, there was an unbelievable amount of fear put out there -- 'war on terror, war on terror, war on terror.' How many alerts have we had since the election?" <….>
Kerry is presenting his children's healthcare plan as a simple choice for Congress: Either make permanent the recent tax cuts for those earning more than $300,000 a year, or use the cost of that tax cut to guarantee healthcare for all children, mainly through Medicaid. That, he said, is a true question of values.
''If we grow this from community to community, we can build something that will put this on the political agenda," Kerry said in Louisiana. ''We need to get everybody, all across this country, putting this simple choice to America. And it's a fundamental values choice. If you can't start by insuring kids first instead of a greater big tax cut, what can you do to assert the morality of your nation?" |
It appears to me that kerry has chosen children's healthcare as the vehicle to USE for his new makeover theme: a john kerry with a superior moral stance -- a big SOCIAL CAUSE -- a man qualified and mandated by his life's work to preach to the nation about values and morality.... Wonder when the Globe will start questioning this....
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