WP: For Kerry, Thinking Globally Began at a Young Age

[kskiska]

From the beginning, John F. Kerry has formed his presidential campaign around his service in the Vietnam War. But it is another war, World War II, that shaped his belief that the United States is more effective on the global stage when it works closely with other countries.

As a young boy, he saw the ruins of his mother's house in France. As an adolescent, he lived in West Berlin, where his father was a diplomat. Even as a young man, he measured his service in Vietnam against what his experience and education had taught him about the importance of international alliances.

Now Kerry's belief in the need for global partners has become one of the defining elements of his challenge to President Bush. In tonight's debate, the Democratic nominee is expected to stick to the theme he has sounded for months: Only a change in U.S. leadership will attract other countries to share the burden in Iraq.

That line of attack has not been without hazard. Bush and Vice President Cheney have used it as a basis for counterattacks, with the president portraying Kerry as wanting to submit U.S. policy to a "global test."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16130-2004Oct7.html

[tuvor]

1. Do we know when bush first moved beyond US borders?

[shraby]

2. He can't even keep the fact that

the United States is between Canada and Mexico straight in his mind. Check out the geography section at <http://www.dubyaspeak.com>

[Rose Siding]

3. This WP piece is as good for Kerry as the "Isolated" piece is bad for Bush

snip>
Kerry, then 4, held his mother's hand as their feet crunched over stones and shards of glass. The walls were heaped at their feet. A chimney rose above the rubble; a blackened stairway broke off at the sky.

The Nazis had used her house as a military post. Before they retreated, they blew it up, Kerry said in an interview, because his grandparents had been friendly with the British prime minister, Winston Churchill.

"It's my earliest memory," Kerry said, sitting in his study in his Boston home. "She was sobbing; I was perplexed." He reached for a photograph of the Brittany house and traced the black-and-white lines: "Here's the chimney. The grass was tall."

[DeepModem Mom]

4. We have nominated an extraordinary man -- how I wish...

we could get beyond the print press, past the TV newswh---es, and the ads, and into minds open and educated enough to see this. The first debate was a start. Pray we can build on that.

[Moderator]

5. Explanation of move

Great article, but not a breaking news story...a "feature article"