Bush ignores AIDS, 'genocide' in Sudan, Kerry tells
NAACP
boston.com
By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff | July 16, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- John F. Kerry yesterday told a national gathering of
black leaders and voters that President Bush was ignoring ''genocide" in
Sudan and the AIDS pandemic, which Kerry called ''the greatest moral
crisis of our time."
Kerry, the Democrats' presumptive presidential
nominee, also charged that his Republican rival, who
skipped the NAACP convention, ''really seems to have a problem with the
truth."
In his NAACP appearance and in a speech at a nearby suburban home,
Kerry portrayed Bush as having neglected the needs of downtrodden
Americans and having overextended US troops in Iraq in a way that
hinders US ability to intervene in such global hot spots as Sudan. Kerry
also took aim at Bush's own identification as a born-again Christian,
quoting a passage from the Bible that says ''faith without works is dead."
Kerry and Bush have been locked in a war of words over ''values" since the
July Fourth weekend, when Kerry took a bus tour through the Midwest
and said he shared the ''conservative values" of many families there,
including a personal belief that life begins at conception. Kerry has
launched a campaign in recent days to woo African-American voters, a
largely Democratic voting group, but one that often adheres to conservative
social values.
The Massachusetts senator pointedly criticized Bush administration policy
toward Africa.
On a day when United Nations officials estimated that hundreds of
thousands of Sudanese may die in coming weeks because of lack of
medical supplies, Kerry called for the United States, with the UN, to lead
an ''international humanitarian intervention" in Sudan's war-torn region of
Darfur, where Arab militias have been killing and displacing villagers,
driving some into neighboring Chad.
''This administration must stop equivocating. Those government-sponsored
atrocities should be called by their rightful name -- genocide," Kerry said
to cheers. ''That is a lesson of Rwanda. That is a lesson of World War II.
That is a lesson of time."
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said yesterday that Bush has
been calling for an end to violence in Sudan, recently sent Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell to that country, and has been working with African
nations and UN members to halt the bloodshed.
''John Kerry, meanwhile, is making his typical political attacks," Schmidt
said.
Kerry also argued that Bush has not acted aggressively enough to fight
AIDS in Africa and worldwide. Bush has announced a $15 billion program
to prevent infection and treat patients in selected countries; Kerry
yesterday pledged to double that amount, to $30 billion, and extend the
initiative to more nations.
''Fighting AIDS is the greatest moral obligation of our time: How can we
possibly see the suffering of so many and just turn aside and do too little?"
Kerry said. ''And if we don't help, who will?"
Page 2 of 2 -- Kerry, who has been criticized by some black leaders for not
energetically courting their base, hit on an array of hot-button issues
before 2,500 people in the NAACP audience, from racial profiling to
economically segregated public schools.
He drew loud applause by recalling the 2000 presidential
vote in Florida, where a number of African-American
voters protested that that their names were apparently struck from the
rolls or were hindered in their voting by malfunctioning ballot machines.
''Don't tell us that in the strongest democracy on Earth that a million
disenfranchised African-Americans and the most tainted election in
American history is the best that we can do," Kerry said.
Attracting the African-American vote is a high priority for the Kerry
campaign, particularly in such possible Southern swing states as Florida,
Louisiana, and Arkansas, where the Democrats hope to build a coalition of
moderates, working- and middle-class voters, as well as Catholics and
Jews. At the same time, Kerry has been careful not to lecture blacks
about values; in recent weeks, entertainer Bill Cosby has drawn some
rebukes for criticizing black parents over their child-rearing skills and
black youth for disdaining education.
Kerry opened his remarks to the NAACP by mocking Bush's decision to skip
the gathering, playfully teasing the crowd about ''having trouble getting
some speakers," and then taking aim at the White House's statement that
the president had a scheduling conflict. Bush is the first sitting president
in 80 years not to attend at least one national conference of the NAACP.
''As a campaigner, I know something about scheduling conflicts and hostile
environments. But you know what? When you're president of the United
States, you can pretty much say where you want to be and when," Kerry
said to laughter and applause.
''When you're president, you need to talk to all the people -- and that's
exactly what I intend to do. I will be a president who is truly a uniter, not
one who seeks to divide our nation by race, or riches or by any other
label," Kerry said.
During the speech, Kerry also sharply challenged the president's
argument that the Democrats' ticket, which includes vice presidential
nominee John Edwards, would raise taxes for most Americans.
''This president just really seems to have a problem with the truth. He's
talking about John and me going out, raising taxes on working people. I
don't know if he knows who working people really are. Working people are
not the top one and a half percent of Americans, because 98 percent of
America will get a tax cut under my plan," Kerry said.
Nicolle Devenish, a spokeswoman for the Bush campaign, said she was
struck by the ''intensely personal nature" of Kerry's attacks on the
president.
''When you flail so wildly, when you lump mistruths about the president's
accomplishments and misplaced anger about the 2000 election, it's
obviously tied to Kerry's increasing discomfort with our focus on the
differences between him and the president," Devenish said.
Some rank-and-file members of the NAACP insisted yesterday that despite
their leadership's harsh criticism of Bush, he would have been given a fair
hearing here.
''If a man is willing to say 'bring it on' in terms of the Iraq war, if he
considers himself to be a wartime president, if he considers him to be a
fearless leader, then he shouldn't be afraid to be on our stage," said
Theresa A. Dear, president of the DuPage County branch of the NAACP in
Illinois.
Shortly afterward, on his campaign plane to Philadelphia, Kerry refused to
give the target length or themes of his convention speech. He said that he
wrote by longhand, then used scissors and paste to rearrange his
paragraphs on paper. ''I'll have somebody type it up, print it out, then play
with it, look at it, sleep on it, wake up the next day, and see how
[expletive] it is," Kerry said, dead-panning. ''Excuse me. Wrong word. See
how bad it is."
Pleading with a reporter that he didn't want to talk politics, Kerry, an avid
bicyclist, predicted that Lance Armstrong would soon come on strong at
the Tour de France. Asked to choose a fantasy sporting experience for
himself, he said there were too many to pick one.
''What kid hasn't fantasized pitching in -- some game," he said.
The longtime Red Sox fan was asked: What about hitting one over the
Green Monster at Fenway? ''No, I don't fantasize about that," Kerry said.
He traveled to Charleston, W.Va., last night for a rally and fund-raiser,
where he was expected to net over $700,000.
Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. |
