Kerry can't afford to go negative
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April 27, 2004
BY JESSE JACKSON
The Chicago Sun-Times
We know what kind of a campaign George W. Bush plans to run. He just set a record, spending some $50 million dollars in one month, almost all of it on negative ads attacking John Kerry.
Kerry's temptation is to reply in kind, but his challenge is to rise above the foul temper of the Bush campaign and offer Americans a positive vision of where he will lead this nation.
Bush's campaign strategy is clear: With the worst jobs record since the Depression, record trade deficits and jobs going abroad, record budget deficits endangering Social Security and Medicare, more people without health care, wages not keeping up with prices, broken promises on education and the environment, and Americans left bearing the burden in a deteriorating Iraq and Afghanistan, the president figures that it is easier to scare Americans about John Kerry than to run on his record.
Kerry's task is different. He can't simply trade hooks and jabs with the president and his hit squad. That's fighting on Bush's terms and, as Bush proved in 2000 against John McCain and Al Gore, no one is more skilled at low blows, sharp elbows and thumbs to the eye than Bush, Karl Rove and his gang.
Kerry has no choice but to attack Bush's failed record and counter his low blows, but that's not enough. He needs to provide a positive agenda to this campaign -- bold ideas that can excite people, release their imagination and contrast sharply with Bush's failed policies.
The centerpiece must be a new jobs and growth agenda to rebuild America. Bush touts tax cuts for the wealthy not tied to creating jobs here and now. He keeps promising that they will invest in America, but they have no obligation to do so. In fact, investors are diversifying their investments overseas, with China the fastest-growing recipient of foreign investment. Bush's tax cuts are perversely creating more jobs in Shanghai than in Chicago.
Kerry should lay out instead a program to rebuild America and put Americans back to work. Repeal the top-end tax cuts, close the corporate loopholes and Bermuda tax dodges, and use that money to build houses and schools, modernize sewer and electrical lines, repair roads and bridges. That would create jobs here, put people back to work and generate a recovery that helps bring the deficits down.
Similarly, Kerry should challenge Bush's big oil energy policy, the shameless payoff to cronies and special interests hatched in secret that leaves us more dependent on foreign oil and less in control of our destiny.
Instead, Kerry should call for a crash program to develop renewable energy, invest in energy efficiency, and ensure that the new hybrid and fuel cell cars are built in Detroit rather than Asia. Again, he would be generating good jobs here while eliminating our dependence on Persian Gulf oil, capturing the green markets of the future, and addressing the threat of catastrophic climate.
This president not only hasn't acted to curb the soaring price of health care, he's made things worse. His prescription drug bill brazenly prohibits the government from negotiating with the drug companies to get a better price for seniors. That's a payoff to drug companies that Consumer's Union predicts will leave most seniors paying more for their drugs.
Kerry should make himself the tribune of affordable health care for all. He can start step by step, making certain that all children and their parents are covered first.
The point is that people are looking for hope. They long for a candidate who can unleash their imaginations and summon their better angels. They yearn for a leader with bold vision who is prepared to stand up and fight for big ideas that will make this economy work better for working people.
This battle will go down to the final hour. Exchanging jabs and sucker punches won't suffice for the challenger. Kerry must make himself a source of hope and vision, and place himself clearly on the side of poor and working Americans. That contrast with Bush's negative and ugly campaign will be stark indeed.
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