Kennedy Launches Attack on Bush on Convention's 2n

[nemo]

Kennedy Launches Attack on Bush on Convention's 2nd Day

By DAVID STOUT

Published: July 27, 2004

BOSTON, July 27 ? Senator Edward M. Kennedy welcomed Democrats to his beloved Boston this evening with a fiery attack on President Bush, who he said had broken America's covenant with the world and Washington's compact with the people of the United States.

Mr. Kennedy, delivering what some have forecast as a near farewell after more than four decades in the Senate, told delegates that Mr. Bush had too much in common with the King George of old, against whom the spirit of revolution was born in the very streets of this city, and that for the sake of the country he must be turned out in November.

"The colonists knew they could do better, just as we know we can do better today ? but only if we all work together, only if we all reach out together, only if we all come together for the common good," the senator said, leading a call joined by several other prominent Democrats to send Senator John Kerry to the White House and send George W. Bush back home.

"Now it is for us, the patriots of this new century, to do that, to shape our own better future and make it worthy of our past, to choose a leader worthy of our country ? and that leader is John Kerry," Mr. Kennedy said.

Before the evening was out, Mr. Kerry was also extolled by Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Senate minority leader, and by two men who not so long ago dreamed of being in Mr. Kerry's place as their party's next presidential nominee: Representative Richard Gephardt of Missouri and former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont.

About 90 members of the Kennedy family were in the FleetCenter to watch Mr. Kennedy, once the youngest brother of the fabled political clan but now the white-haired patriarch, address a Democratic convention for the eighth time. And while there has been conjecture that his next Senate campaign, in 2006, may be his last, he joked at the outset that "I intend to stay in this job until I get the hang of it."

"The goals of the American people are every bit as high as they were more than 200 years ago," Mr. Kennedy said. "If America is failing to reach them today, it's not because our ideals need replacing, it's because our president needs replacing."

Mr. Kennedy's address followed by a few hours the adoption of the Democratic platform in which the delegates, by a voice vote, pledged uncompromising war against terrorists, better relations with other nations and more opportunities at home, and accused President Bush of failing woefully in all those areas.

Mr. Kennedy's speech was the sharpest attack on President Bush so far at the convention, and it continued a trend in which the Democrats, after promising a convention that would be uplifting ? and avoid blatant Bush bashing ? apparently decided either individually or collectively that the best lift for the Kerry campaign would be a frontal attack on the current White House.

Mr. Gephardt, Mr. Daschle and Mr. Dean joined in the attack on Mr. Bush when their turns came.

"We need John Kerry as president because we need a uniter, not a divider," Mr. Gephardt said.

Mr. Daschle said the country needed a president who would show Americans how to live by their values, not just talk about them. "We honor the fundamental difference between right and wrong," he said.

And Mr. Dean said Senator Kerry was the man to "take this country back for the citizens who built it." Mr. Dean did allow, with a chuckle, that he would rather be speaking to the convention on Thursday as the nominee ? rather than tonight, as an also-ran.

The appearance of Mr. Kennedy, who is 72, may have marked, if not the end of an era, then the beginning of the end. Other, younger Democrats were speaking later this evening. The keynote speaker is Barack Obama, a young Illinois lawmaker who seems this fall to have an excellent chance of becoming only the third black United States senator since Reconstruction.

But Mr. Kennedy relished his own minutes in the spotlight, especially since he shared them with Boston. "I've waited a very, very long time to say this ? welcome to my hometown!" the senator said.

Mr. Kennedy verbally embraced not just the Boston of Paul Revere and John Adams but the Boston of Irish immigrants, including all eight of his great-grandparents. "Here in New England, we love our history, and like all Americans we learn from it," he said.

"I've served for many years in the Senate and have seen many elections," Mr. Kennedy said moments later. "But there have been none more urgent or more important than this one. Never before have I seen a contrast so sharp or consequences so profound as in the choice we will make for president in 2004. So much of the progress we have achieved has been turned back. So much of the good will America once enjoyed in the world has been lost. But we are a hopeful nation, and our values and our optimism are still burning bright."

Mr. Kennedy accused Mr. Bush of squandering the good will of the world after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, by embarking on a reckless, go-it-alone approach against Iraq that he said made a mockery of the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence, which calls for `a decent respect to the opinions of mankind."

Other Democrats have assailed Mr. Bush's policies, but Mr. Kennedy questioned Mr. Bush's political motives as well. "America is a compact, a contract," he said. "It says that all of us are connected."

Yet, he said, "in our own time, there are those who seek to divide us. One community against another. Urban against rural. City against suburb. Whites against blacks. Men against women. Straights against gays. Americans against Americans. In these challenging times for our country, in these fateful times for the world, America needs a genuine leader ? not a divider who only claims to be a uniter.

"We have seen how they rule ? they divide and try to conquer. They know the power of the people is weakened when our house is divided. They believe they can't win, unless the rest of us lose. We reject that shameful view."

Some of President Bush's top aides and speechwriters were no doubt watching Mr. Kennedy tonight, and perhaps sharpening their pencils in preparation for sketching him as a liberal. Indeed, Mr. Kennedy was that tonight, recalling Democratic times from the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt, through the brief administration of President John F. Kennedy and beyond ? and lamenting the current Republican tide, which he said stood for elitism, intolerance for dissent and "the quiet whisper of the sweetheart deal."

Now, Mr. Kennedy said, the internal struggle is against just those things. "These are familiar fights," he said. "We've fought and won them before. And with John Kerry and John Edwards leading us, we will win them again and make America stronger at home and respected once more in the world."

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[Island Dog]

This isn't the best time for Ted Kennedy, being the "anniversary".

[Aaron Veteran]

This isn't the best time for Ted Kennedy, being the "anniversary".

Just in case some are unaware of the anniversary, is that the one where a probably drunk Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge, resued himself and then left the scene? Of I almost forgot, that he left his passenger Mar Jo in the car and didn't call police till the morning. Is that the one we are talking about? :no:

[3beanlimit]

After what Bush did to Kennedy over the Medicare fiasco......I'd say he was pretty tame. Still...after listening to his speech, and rereading it, I'd make a point that it's no where near ANY of the smear ads Bush has used with his 80 million spent on them so far...