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Edwards: Kerry ready to build one America
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-29 10:29 US Democratic vice presidential candidate John
Edwards praised John Kerry Wednesday night as a man tested by war and ready
to take command, determined to "build one America" no longer divided by income
or race.
Edwards accused Republicans of waging a campaign of "relentless negative
attacks," and told the Democratic National Convention and a nationwide
prime-time audience that they hold the power to reject it.
US Democratic vice
presidential candidate Senator John Edwards gestures to the crowd as he
speaks before being confirmed as his party's vice presidential nominee
during the third night of the 2004 Democratic National Convention at the
FleetCenter in Boston, July 28, 2004.
[Reuters] |
"Instead you can embrace the
politics of hope, the politics of what's possible because this is America, where
everything is possible," Kerry's ticketmate said in prepared remarks.
"The truth is, we still live in two different Americas," said Edwards, the
son of a Carolina mill worker and the first in his family to attend college.
"It doesn't have to be that way," he added, reprising the theme that fueled
his own surprisingly strong challenge for the Democratic presidential nomination
last winter.
Edwards had his turn at the podium a few hours after Kerry campaigned his way
to the convention city and into the eager embrace of his Vietnam War crewmates.
A dozen fellow veterans greeted him, including Jim Rassmann, a retired Special
Forces soldier whose life Kerry saved from a muddy river in the Mekong Delta
while under enemy fire.
US Democratic vice
presidential candidate Senator John Edwards gestures to the crowd as he
arrives to be confirmed as his party's vice presidential nominee during
the third night of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, at the
FleetCenter in Boston, July 28, 2004.
[Reuters] | "We're going to write the next great
chapter of history in this country together," Kerry vowed at a welcome-home
rally in the city that
has nourished his political career for a quarter
century.
In keeping with the overwhelming security arrangements for the first national
political convention since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Kerry's ferry
was escorted by Coast Guard vessels armed with machine guns as it made the brief
trip across the open harbor.
Like dozens of other speakers, Edwards stressed the overriding national
security theme at the convention. He recalled Kerry's service in Vietnam a
generation ago, saying he ordered his swiftboat turned around despite enemy fire
and plucked a fellow American from the river to safety.
"Decisive. Strong. Aren't these the traits you want in a commander in chief?"
he asked rhetorically.
But Edwards' speech also marked something of a pivot to other issues that
have received scant attention during three nights of convention oratory.
In one of the few references of the convention to Kerry's economic program,
Edwards said it relies on tax hikes on Americans in top 2 percent of income and
offers the hope of benefits to millions.
"We can build an America where we no longer have two health care systems," he
said. "... We can build one public school system that works for all our
children. ... We can create good paying jobs in America again," he added, by
stopping the tax breaks that give companies an incentive to send jobs overseas.
Recalling a childhood in the segregated South, Edwards said he and Kerry want
"our children and our grandchildren to be the first generations to grow up in an
America that's no longer divided by race."
US Vice
presidential candidate John Edwards reacts to the applause of delegates
before speaking at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, July
28, 2004, in Boston. [AP] |
In a slap at the
Bush administration, he said Kerry will "build and lead strong alliances and
safeguard and secure weapons of mass destruction ... We will always use our
military might to keep the American people safe."
"And we will have one clear unmistakable message for al-Qaida and the rest of
these terrorists. You can run. You cannot hide. And we will destroy you."
The convention program called for the delegates to formally bestow their
presidential nomination on Kerry in the midnight hour, after his running mate's
prime-time oratory.
"He understands the urgent need to bring this
country together toward a common purpose, a united America," said Sen. Dianne
Feinstein of California, who placed Kerry's name in nomination.
Kerry's speech Thursday marks the finale of a unified party convention but
also the kickoff of a bruising, closely contested fall campaign to wrest the
White House from President Bush.
By orders of the Kerry command, this was a Democratic convention unlike any
other in memory. While one convention speaker after another extolled the
candidate's war record, they skipped lightly over controversial issues that
Democrats traditionally support — abortion rights, gun control, gay rights and
affirmative action among them.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, a liberal lawmaker who challenged for the
nomination, was something of an exception. "We are the party of workers' rights,
civil rights and women's rights. ... When we show up holding the banner of
social and economic justice, we win," he said.
Opinion polls show the country divided over the war in Iraq, with Bush
favored over Kerry when it comes to waging war on terrorism. Most polls show a
close race for the White House, with Kerry either tied or slightly ahead.
A convention-week lull in the television ad wars was nearing an end.
Officials said the Democratic National Committee was launching a fresh
round of ads in more than a dozen battleground states beginning this weekend.
The cost will reach $6 million in the first week alone, they added.
Bush has spent the week at his ranch in Texas, and spokesman Trent Duffy said
the president devoted part of the day to taping television commercials for the
fall campaign.
The White House abruptly switched its tune on the Democratic convention, with
Duffy saying Bush has been "monitoring closely" and has "watched some of it from
time to time" on television. An aide had said earlier in the week that Bush
didn't watch on Monday and had no plans to do so on Tuesday.
GOP surrogates, who had set up a political war room a few blocks from the
delegates met, spent the week lobbing rhetorical salvos at what they called the
Democrats' "extreme makeover" convention.
"There has been a total avoidance of discussion of the voting record of John
Kerry, but that's not surprising," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.
Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, drew the prime-time assignment of introducing her
husband. And she, too, mentioned that Kerry served in the Navy.
Of her husband, she said in prepared remarks that he was the "smartest,
toughest, sweetest man I know" — and the most optimistic, too.
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