John F. Kerry staked his hopes for the White House Thursday night on a gamble that would have seemed almost unimaginable for a Democrat not so long ago, a challenge to President Bush to a debate on the twin pillars of Republican success: values and security.
It is a challenge that has been building steadily along the campaign trail all year, as Kerry and his advisers confronted the political realities of the first presidential campaign since Sept. 11, 2001, and later the aggressive effort by the Bush team to define the Democrat as outside of the political mainstream.
This was a speech designed not just to promote Kerry's candidacy but also to answer his critics -- that he is too liberal, that he is too cerebral, that he is aloof, that he lacks an obvious sense of humor. But at its heart it was an attempt to turn the Bush administration on its head and to argue in often toughly worded passages that there is a different way to keep the country safe and a better way to make it prosperous. "I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war," he said. "I will have a vice president who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a secretary of defense who will listen to the best advice of our military leaders. And I will appoint an attorney general who actually upholds the Constitution of the United States."
Rarely has an acceptance speech come with so much hype and drama -- as well as nervousness among the Democrats about Kerry's capacity to rise to the moment. For all his attributes, Kerry has never been known as a charismatic politician and rarely has he demonstrated a great gift for political oratory.
On Thursday, he tried to make himself more human with memories of his parents and his childhood and with references to his wife and children. But ultimately he appeared willing to cede the battle over personality and liability to Bush.
Instead, he framed his candidacy around attributes that he and his advisers appear to believe will be more relevant for today, arguing that in a dangerous world, seriousness is its own virtue and that, if he is not always the warmest of politicians, he has a lifetime of experience that should reassure voters they can trust him to keep them safe.
All week the convention program was shaped with a single aim, to project Kerry and the Democratic Party as committed to the nation's security, and on Thursday night, the Massachusetts senator drew a direct link between his combat record as a naval officer in the Vietnam War to assure his national television audience members that they can trust the Democrats in the war on terrorism. "I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president," he said.
Invoked the flag
Kerry reached for every experience in his biography to associate himself with symbols of strength and patriotism, invoking a tattered and bullet-ridden flag that waved at the back of his Swift boat in Vietnam and the imagery of a young solider on patrol to suggest that the lessons he learned 35 years ago uniquely equip him to become president today. "As president," he said, "I will wage this war with the lessons I learned in war."
He invoked the flag to challenge the Republicans on values, an area of political debate where Democrats have consistently been on the defensive in recent years. As with security, Kerry sought to demonstrate that Republicans have taken the wrong road. But the core of his argument was that the values championed by Republicans divide the country while the values he promotes would lift up the country.
He talked about his own faith to dispel the image of the Democrats as a party hostile to religion, but he said that, unlike some other politicians, "I don't wear my faith on my sleeve." For Kerry, the values he wears on his sleeve are those of economic justice, protection of Social Security and educating children -- the kinds of ideas Democrats have long championed.
What was missing was any discussion of the kinds of social issues that long have put the Democrats on the defensive, from gay rights to gun rights, and Kerry will find Republicans eager to challenge him in his effort to redefine the debate. But his emphasis on values signaled to Democrats that he would not shrink from GOP attacks in the way that Michael S. Dukakis did in 1988.
Kerry bid for undecided and centrist voters with an appeal for a campaign of big ideas and not, as he put it, small-minded attacks. He challenged Bush to "build unity in the American family, not angry division," and he said that if elected he will fill his administration not just with Democrats but with Republicans as well.
Partisan and bipartisan
Throughout the speech, Kerry mixed criticism of the administration with efforts to portray himself and his party as optimists with a positive message. He was both partisan and bipartisan, casting the Republicans as out of the mainstream while calling for a restoration of civility to the political debate. He praised Bush for his conduct in the days immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, but used that praise to cast into question much of what Bush has done since.
"I am proud that after September 11th all our people rallied to President Bush's call for unity to meet the danger," he said. "There were no Democrats. There were no Republicans. There were only Americans. How we wish it had stayed that way."
Almost in the next breath he suggested that Bush had evaded and equivocated on fixing the nation's intelligence capabilities, accused the president of bringing about a loss of respect for the United States in the world and suggested that, without a change of administrations, there is little hope of attracting military and financial support for the mission to secure Iraq.
"We need a president who has the credibility to bring our allies to our side and share the burden, reduce the cost to American taxpayers and reduce the risk to American soldiers," he said. "That's the right way to get the job done and bring our troops home. Here is the reality: That won't happen until we have a president who restores America's respect and leadership, so we don't have to go it alone in the world."
The domestic agenda Kerry outlined Thursday night included familiar elements: expanded access to health care, energy independence, a pledge to create good jobs and take away incentives for companies to ship jobs overseas. And in presenting that agenda, he stole a line from the 2000 Republican convention when he declared repeatedly, "Help is on the way."
Kerry's speech was short on soaring rhetoric, one big idea or the kind of phrase that can encapsulate an entire candidacy. It was instead an effort to illuminate the senator's biography to demonstrate the values he has brought to public service.
The speech also demonstrated the journey Democrats have followed since the 2002 campaign, when they were reluctant to talk about national security because of what they perceived as Bush's strength on the subject. Kerry's gamble is that there is no other way to win the presidency than to show that he and the Democrats have adapted to the new challenges of an era of terrorism.
But the question still surrounding his candidacy is whether Thursday's speech made the clear case for change and whether he offered the country an uplifting and compelling vision of his own presidency that will resonate with the voters he was trying to reach.
