With Kerry’s chances so fragile, dissent gets no invitation
BOSTON - The Democratic Party, for decades burdened by deep divisions and misgivings about how and how much America should engage the world, is preparing for the first time since 1972 to make American foreign policy and national security a centerpiece of their national campaign.
This is not to suggest that the divisions that have haunted the party since Vietnam are gone; they are not. Many of the rank-and-file Democratic delegates gathered here to hand the party’s standard to Sen. John Kerry remain deeply suspicious of the size of America’s defense budget and the deployment of American troops in places like Iraq.
The vast majority of these Democrats also put domestic economic and social concerns ahead of foreign policy issues, and many of them object privately to Kerry’s stated intention, if elected, to keep American troops in Iraq and even to expanding the size of the U.S. Army by 40,000 troops.
Yet there appears to be a consensus, at least among the party regulars, that Kerry’s chances of unseating George W. Bush are too fragile to survive any kind of internal debate on issues of national security.
“Inside the Fleet Center, you’re not going to see a whole lot of dissent on any aspect of foreign policy,” says a Howard Dean supporter from Wisconsin who asked not to be named. “I think people understand that even if national security isn’t a Democratic advantage, the Iraq war has made it one of Bush’s vulnerabilities. So, basically, we’ll hold our noses and applaud.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5520038/