With national security a top issue in race, Kerry courts veterans

[Feanorcurufinwe]

On the eve of Veterans Day, Sen. John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, led a bus full of retired military men and women through Iowa on Monday, seeking to burnish his image as the top national-security candidate in the field. Jeff Pierce sat next to him.

Pierce, his thin ponytail tied tightly just below the back of his Vietnam veterans cap, opposes the war in Iraq, hopes for better benefits to cover his stress-related disability and leans independent in his politics.

But in January's presidential caucus-voting here, Pierce, a 52-year-old Air Force veteran, plans to cast his vote for Kerry, D-Mass.

<snip>

"Today, 90,000 veterans are waiting for care at VA hospitals, and 41,000 veterans are waiting for their first doctors' visits," Kerry told a group in Des Moines. "We shouldn't be neglecting the care for our troops and their families before, during and after war."

Kerry has obtained pledges of support from 1,026 veterans in Iowa; aides said one-third of veterans who have promised to attend the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses on Jan. 19 have never attended a caucus before.

<snip>

For all Kerry's strategy, veterans tend to vote Republican. They make up 16 percent of the electorate, and 84 percent of veterans are registered to vote. According to the bipartisan Battleground 2004 poll conducted in September, 60 percent of veterans approve of Bush's performance and 54 percent believe he should be re-elected.

At the same time, that poll found that military relatives aren't as supportive of Bush, with only 36 percent approving of his performance and 37 percent backing his re-election. Kerry especially hopes to win those voters.
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/7230125.htm

[billbuckhead]

1. I think most Americans would feel better if the Dem candidate was military

How about a Kerry-Clark ticket? That would keep Karl Rove up at night. I think it would be a more honorable way to win in the south rather than going George Wallace.

[eileen_d]

2. I don't know about military, but -

I agree that I would be much more comfortable with someone in the White House who has experience with international relations, foreign policy, and military affairs. That's why Kerry & Clark are my top two. Usually I would give precedence to domestic issues, but not this election.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

19. 'The greatest of our generation'

Max Cleland, the former U.S. senator from Georgia who lost both legs and much of his right arm in the Vietnam War, quotes Harold G. Moore, the author of "We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young."


"He said, 'We may not be the greatest generation, but we're the greatest of OUR generation," " says Cleland, who campaigned in Iowa last week for a fellow Vietnam veteran, Sen. John Kerry, a Democratic presidential candidate. "I like that very much. It's exactly the way I feel about it."

...

about 10 years ago, when McCarthy was chief of detectives in Des Moines, a narcotics officer was charged with two dozen felonies, another officer was charged with stealing a lottery ticket during a drug raid, and money had been stolen from the police narcotics safe.

Someone asked McCarthy why he appeared so calm.

"Once you've been to Vietnam, everything pales by comparison," he replied.

"It still holds true," he says today.

Several veterans say the image of Vietnam troops has improved as more veterans campaign for elected office and openly discuss their military service. Kerry, for example, has specifically targeted Iowa's Vietnam veterans for support in the state's caucuses.

Boswell, an Army veteran who flew attack helicopters in Vietnam, says his fellow veterans should be proud of their accomplishments.

"I think that the Vietnam generation stood tall," he says. "They went, they did their best, they were valiant and they served well. They did exactly what their country asked them to do."
http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c2229999/22719114.html

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. That's the ticket

for lack of a better phrase.
and I see Dean was trying to play "catch-up" on veterans' affairs today. Oh well, it was nice for Howard while it lasted.

[dean4america]

4. remind me again

what Bill Clinton's foreign policy credentials were? that's what i thought.

The election will come down to the same thing it always does - the economy. that is, things here at home. dean is far and away my first choice, but bob graham was my second because of his executive leadership and ability to get things done. if people vote their economic interests, bush is toast. if they don't, it won't matter WHAT credentials the dem nominee has, cos the american electorate will have been snookered by * into thinking national security is job one and that he's the leader on it.

i, for, do not care one bit that Dean is not a military man. in fact, i like him more because of it. maybe if kerry hadn't run such an inept campaign and come across as totally without fight in him, it'd be a different story.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

5. Clinton was someone who could negotiate

not someone who always reacted by 'getting in someones face'.


Your electoral analysis seems to leave everything to fate. I say we have to take the National Security issue away from Bush if we want to win. No to Iraq was a good slogan but at this point in time we need more than a bumper-sticker level of understanding of foreign affairs.

[dean4america]

8. look at the man's record in vermont

he is way more of a negotiator than you give him credit for -- he was able to build and keep coalitions, and draw from diverse segments of the population.

bumper-sticker understandings of foreign policy is what most Americans understand. kerry can speak in his senatorial tongue all he wants but, as with gore, people will turn him off in favor of some lame-ass bushista slogan.

as to the poster below who says he/she would not vote for clinton over kerry or clark... oy vey.

[eileen_d]

9. I heard that!

;) Is Clinton so unassailable? I mean, I voted for him twice, and he has an decent record on foreign policy now. But that was then. Sorry, national security has been MADE an issue in this election, and I'm not interested in amateur hour. So the Clinton-Dean comparisons don't wash with me.

I'll vote for Dean if he gets the nomination, but I *think* it's OK for me to have a preference up until then.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

11. Dean's record in Vermont - a coalition builder?

QUESTION: More broadly, in terms of leadership style and capability, would he make a good president. Can you envisage him in the Oval Office?

POLLINA: I could envisage him there, I want to say because, I say this slightly tongue in cheek--he has an imperial attitude. I mean he has not always been the easiest person for regular folks to work with. I think that he is a good manager in the sense that he's willing to make tough decisions and stand by them. I think unfortunately is he's not always open, or he's often not open to input from the public and other ways of looking at problems.

So I think that he has some strengths that would suit the Oval Office, but I think he has sometimes an unwillingness or unability to listen to people, which I find to be a negative. I think that citizens should have a strong voice in policy making. I'm not so sure that he's the best example of that kind of leader...
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/dean/dean0702/pollinaint.html

Dean did find some coalitions more natural than others:

(When Dean became governor) they (liberal Democrats) were all thinking, oh we got a Democrat back in the governor's office. And all of the sudden they find Howard Dean's worse on spending (than Snelling). The state was headed into a recession at the time. And Snelling before he died, he and Ralph Wright cut a deal on raising the income taxes and (inaud.) the deficit--a few years of austerity. Howard stuck with the plan. And as Dick McCormack (Democratic Senator from Windsor) will tell you of the meeting where he (Dean) met with the Democratic Caucus and told them then, and this might have been before, when he was still lieutenant governor, and told the Democratic Senators, you're never going to win because people don't trust you with their money. None of your great and lofty goals and plans and aspirations will ever be achieved because people don't trust Democrats with their money. We got to prove it to 'em. And that was key. I mean his political enemies for the first three terms were Democrats at the State House, not Republicans. Republicans loved his budgets.
--Peter Freyne http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/dean/dean0702/freyneint.html



"He's an adulation junkie who has always wanted to be famous, the most self-consumed man I've ever met," said Garrison Nelson, a local academic who met Dean more than 20 years ago, when the doctor was new in town, a brash native New Yorker with lots of chutzpah and lots of family money that he never talked about.

...

he would often rant at his detractors, calling them "lunatics," or confronting them with "the finger in the face," as Nelson calls it. At times he would get so mad that the skin on his thick wrestler's neck would redden to the color of raw meat. No wonder some folks used to call him "Little Napoleon."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1109-08.htm

[blm]

17. Doesn't sound like he listened to the left much at all.

In fact, his record in Vermont showed that the coalition Dean fashhioned was the centrist Democrats aligned with the GOP and AGAINST the progressive Democrats.


By ROSS SNEYD

Associated Press Writer


>>>>>>>>
Dean kept his distance from his party’s liberals during his governorship.

"He seemed to take glee in attacking us at every opportunity and using us as a way to form alliances with more conservative elements," said former state Sen. Cheryl Rivers, a leader of the state Democrats’ liberal wing and former chairwoman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

Dean fashioned himself a position in the political center of Vermont politics even as the state has moved steadily to the left.
>>>>>>

[cindyw]

6. Yeah, what was Bush's?

I think it's safe to say that it matters in times like these.

And Clinton was a major consensus builder. I think it's also safe to say that Dean isn't. He prefers the your with us or against us approach.

[eileen_d]

7. If Bill Clinton was running in 2004

I'd support Kerry, or Clark. It's not the 90s anymore!

[Pez]

12. clinton said...

...that he wasn't sure he could win if he was running right now. foreign policy experience is a must for the majority of voters (who don't hang out on here).

[sandnsea]

10. Howard Dean just ain't no Bill Clinton

And that isn't going to wash next year anyway. Bill Clinton caused 9/11 because he was so lousy on defense, remember???

We really do have to have someone with military or extensive foreign policy experience. It's the main reason I didn't go with Edwards. Clark or Kerry are really our only hope of winning next year, with a slight chance for Gephardt because he ought to have some foreign policy experience after all these years. And it doesn't matter what happens in Iraq, the Bushies aren't going to let the 'war on terror' be won, not in an election year!

[blm]

15. Clinton said even he'd have a hard time running in a post 9-11 climate

if he was trying to get elected president.

[blm]

14. I agree...and I think many in the party agree with you.

I don't think it's a coincidence that their choices were Kerry, Edwards and Clark. I think they feel that any combination of those three IS the winning ticket.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

13. "Some vets do respond to the appeal of a fellow soldier"

Some vets do respond to the appeal of a fellow soldier. Mike Gantz, a 53-year-old Iowa veteran, said he backed another Vietnam hero in 2000 - Republican Sen. John McCain - and might go with Kerry this time.

"I personally think that should be a prerequisite for being the president - having worn the uniform," Gantz said.
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/7230125.htm

[Skwmom]

16. I think Kerry gets a lot of credit for not

avoiding the draft like a lot of rich kids did. He could have easily let some poor joe smoe take his place but chose not to. I think that says a lot about the character of the man. Though Kerry is not my first choice I would be very proud to have him as our President.

[JI7]

18. not only that

kerry not only DIDN'T try to avoid the draft, but he actually went and volunteered himself. he went with his best friend from school to sign up. sadly, his friend died in the war.

[lastliberalintexas]

20. Why???????????

Why did a thread with an article which is positive for both Kerry and Clark have to degenerate into snide remarks about Dean? How the heck did he even enter this equation for you people? It just isn't enough to post positive things about your own guy, but you must try to drag someone else down?

I just don't understand why some people have to turn EVERYTHING into an excuse to slam another candidate.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

21. I agree,

although your post may have been more appropriate in response to one of the posts you are complaining about.

Dean is weak on this issue so his campaign and his supporters are bound to try to hijack the discussion into another "I'm right-you're wrong" tennis match.

Clark does have the military background and he seems to command a lot of respect among veterans, but, well, he hasn't been a vet for very long. Kerry's been standing up for veterans for years.