Friday, August 22, 2003

A closer look at the Official Campaign Announcement -

Looking ahead, Kerry to use carrier as campaign launch
By Glen Johnson - Boston Globe Staff - 8/22/2003

Senator John F. Kerry has decided to trade "Old Ironsides" for the USS Yorktown, planning to stand before the aircraft carrier on Sept. 2 to publicly declare his candidacy for president.

The Massachusetts Democrat had considered using the USS Constitution in Charlestown, the Navy's oldest commissioned warship, as a backdrop for the announcement. But campaign aides said Kerry decided to change the location to the Yorktown, which is docked off Charleston, S.C., both to gain publicity in the politically important state as well as to counter the trip President Bush took to an aircraft carrier May 1 to declare an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

In recent speeches, Kerry has challenged Bush's supposed strength on national security matters by highlighting his stature as the only current presidential candidate to have fought in a war.

"I have worked with aircraft carriers for real," Kerry has said, mocking the widely photographed landing Bush made on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

South Carolina follows Iowa and New Hampshire in the primary process. Bush swept the South in the 2000 election, but Kerry believes he can win in Louisiana, Georgia, and perhaps Alabama by highlighting his military service in Vietnam, as well as his support for gun ownership and other traditionally conservative positions.

The senator will be joined at his announcement by most of the members of the two boat crews he commanded while in Vietnam, his aides said. He will be introduced by former US senator Max Cleland, a Georgia Democrat who lost both legs and an arm while fighting in the war.

Kerry plans to preview two themes of his candidacy with major speeches before his announcement tour. On Monday in San Antonio, the senator will speak about national security and veterans affairs before a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. On Thursday, Kerry will deliver an economics speech in New Hampshire.

After his speech in South Carolina, Kerry and his entourage will travel to Iowa. On Sept. 3, Kerry will speak again in New Hampshire, before concluding his announcement tour with a 6 p.m. public rally outside Faneuil Hall.


Here's a note on gun ownership and Kerry's stance on that issue -

Increased Gun Safety: John Kerry is deeply troubled by the numbers of people – and particularly the number of children – that are wounded or killed by gunfire each year. He supports measures that would prevent children and adults from misusing any of the approximately 192 million firearms currently in circulation in the nation. And he believes that we must enforce existing gun laws, close the gun show loophole, which permits sales at gun shows without a background check, and require that all handguns be sold with a child safety lock.

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