John Kerry believes he can beat Bush! Read what he told the Concord Monitor in an interview on June 27th!

Kerry lays out choices - and says he's the one ... Moderate candidate insists President Bush isn't invincible ....

Friday, Jun 27, 2003
By JENNIFER SKALKA
Monitor staff


Forget George Bush's solid poll numbers - Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry believes the president is beatable. It's that plain and simple.

During a meeting with Monitor editors this week, Kerry - who is one of nine Democrats gunning for Bush's job - said he's prepared to be president, more so than his opponents for the nomination and the president himself.

"You know, when George Bush started his race, the questions about him were: Is he smart enough to do the job?" Kerry said. "Is he experienced? Is he prepared? He's never been out of Texas? What's he ever done? Those were the questions. None of those questions are being asked about me. If the worst thing I have to get over is sort of Massachusetts, hooray."

Kerry, 59, is an affluent, elegant Bostonian and the frontrunner, for now, in New Hampshire. In a recent Monitor poll, he landed at the top of the Democratic pack with 30 percent of the vote. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean took second place with 21 percent, and Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt came in third with 11 percent.

Kerry's resume, as he'll tell you, is long. He's a former prosecutor and businessman. He is a Vietnam veteran. He's a four-term senator. He's a hunter. He's a gun owner. He's a father of two and stepfather of three. He's led the fight, as he says often, against everything from Ronald Reagan's war in Central America to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"I believe I have a unique set of experiences," Kerry said. "And I think I've shown leadership throughout my career, willingness to take on powerful interests, willingness to fight for the things I believe in, and I think the country wants strong leadership moving in the right direction. And I think I bring it, and that's why I'm running."

In his meeting with the Monitor, Kerry depicted his career as that of the picture-perfect moderate. He talked about pushing for 100,000 more cops on America's streets. He said he's a fiscally-responsible Democrat. He said he believes in job creation and wealth creation. He's talking, and playing, on Bush's turf.

"I'm going to take plain old mainstream American values to the country," Kerry said. "I've gone (to the) South now in South Carolina and Alabama and Tennessee or anywhere, I'm drawing big crowds. People are signing on."

Kerry speaks in long, winding, erudite sentences, paragraphs really. He cites data - such as 44 percent of the nation's rivers and lakes are unswimmable - to make his point. He uses slim, tanned fingers to gently gesture, a finger point to emphasize the Bush administration's extremism. He also drops names when convenient. Bobby Kennedy, a devoted environmentalist and son of the late New York Sen. Robert Kennedy, is a supporter. And former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin and New York financier Felix Rohatyn, who was also ambassador to France, are crafting his economic plan.

Kerry said that Bush is not invincible, despite his popularity after the war in Iraq. Kerry said it's his job to show the American public how the two men are different. He's running against Bush, it's clear, not the eight other men and women also vying for that opportunity.

"I don't care what his numbers are today," Kerry said of Bush. "They mean nothing to me, truly. . . . if I can articulate a clear enough vision and draw the difference. Here's your choice, America: You have a health care system that's imploding. You are paying more and more for your health care and aren't getting what you want. You have a choice. I'll give you a better plan and here it is or you can have a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans that you're not even going to get. What's your choice? That's a choice. That's in this race."

"What do you want to do about the environment? Choice," Kerry said. "I mean that's the way it's going to be. Choice. What do you want to do about kids? Do you want to fund education or do you think people earning $315,000 ought to get a tax cut? That's the choice. That's exactly what's happened. Make no mistake about it."

Kerry said that he's tired of the Bush agenda. And he's angry. He said the White House is "building deficits out as far as the eye can see" and that the Republican Party's goal is to "feed their friends with big tax cuts." He particularly resents the administration's seeming ownership of national security issues.

"I'm the only person who comes to this race with military experience, with longtime foreign policy experience and even with war fighting experience," Kerry said. "And I think I can stand up to the Karl Rove/George Bush strategy of just giving you war and war all the time and military fear and terror fear and so forth. . . . and point out the ways in which in fact I can make our country safer."

Kerry had a few nice things, however, to say about Bush, a fellow Yale University alum who graduated two years behind the senator.

"I think he reached out to the country effectively and appropriately in the wake of Sept. 11, and I think he did a good job of bringing people together in that very dire moment," Kerry said. "And I think that's part of the emotional attachment to him. And I think that he did well at that. I think there were some critical moments there, and he stepped up and did that, and I thank him for it and applaud him for it as do most Americans, I think."

Kerry said that Bush is "a very likeable fellow" and that he has no quarrel with him on a personal level.

"I just don't agree with his blurring of the lines of church and state," Kerry said. "I don't like his attorney general trampling on civil rights in the country. I disagree with his indifference towards average working people in America who should get help. I just have fundamental disagreements of policies."

Kerry said his campaign has five key priorities: job creation, health care, education, the environment and civil rights. His plans in those areas were lengthy - or at least the explanations of his plans in those areas were lengthy. Here are the highlights:

He described his health care plan, which would create a federal fund to pay for 75 percent of catastrophic cases. It's an effort to lower insurance premiums across the board.

He said he'd push Congress to fund 40 percent of special education costs.

He said he'd appoint Supreme Court justices - like New Hampshire's David Souter, he pointed out - who don't make politically-driven decisions but use the Constitution as their guide.

He said he'd protect a woman's right to choose.

He said he'd create a Hydrogen Institute - using the royalties that gas companies pay for land - to develop a clean energy source for the country.

And he said he'd promote a foreign policy built around international coalitions, a "more sensitive, more strategic and more humble" policy than the Bush administration has in place.

Kerry said he wouldn't be cowed by Bush's perceived strengths. The stakes are too high, the differences between them too important. And, of course, Kerry thinks he can win.

"I came into politics when I was a kid, and I made my share of mistakes on my journey and learned from them," Kerry said. "But I'll tell you, I'm worried for my country, and I'm running not because it's fun every day but because these choices are really important to us."

For up to date campaign info from New Hampshire check out the Concord Monitor Online.