>>Believe Kerry hasn't the support . Little know of him, doubt he could carry his own luggage<<
I can understand if they haven't heard of 'im up in the hills around Bentley 'an all, but <GG>.... consider...
He graduated from Yale in 1966, serving in the U.S. Navy immediately following graduation. In Vietnam as a lieutenant on a Mekong Delta gunboat, for which he received a Bronze Star, a Silver Star, and three Purple Heart medals. Later, Kerry co-founded the Vietnam Veterans of America, and co-founded the Vietnam Veterans Against the War movement. After an unsuccessful 1972 run for the U.S. House of Representatives, he then went on to become a prosecutor (District Attorney) in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, having graduated from Boston College Law School in 1976. Kerry won his first election in 1982 as Lieutenant Governor. He was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984, where he's currently serving his third term.
So as an actual decorated war vet and prosecutor, he's not the typical feely-touchy liberal. By 2008, there's a fair likelihood the nation's war fever will have dampened.
He's not failed his fellow vets. He voted to postpone interest payments on SBA loans and extend tax return filing deadlines for reservists who went to serve in the Middle East, and has been outspoken in probing the causes of mysterious illnesses that afflict Gulf War veterans - - cosponsoring the Persian Gulf War Veterans Act of 1996 to make medical connections between physical afflictions and wartime toxic exposure. He stood up for veterans in the areas of military commendation, funding of homeless shelters for U.S. veterans, preventing premature hospital discharges, VA Hospital renovation, funeral and burial benefits, disability coverage, review of compensation for veterans’ benefits & medical care, post-service employment, and national commemoration (including the declaration of National POW/MIA Recognition Day).
In the Senate, he chairs the Small Business committee (where he's led or supported much important legislation benefitting small businesses), serves on the Finance committee and on the Commerce, Science and Transportation committee. He was, in the past, a member of the Foreign Relations committee for 16 years, the ranking Democrat on the East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee, and a member of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee.
Also, since campaign finance reform is an issue, his wealth makes it easier to accept him as one not easily bought. Of course, most of that comes from his wife, Teresa Heinz, a prestigious advocate in her own right, who chairs several philanthropic organizations and has instituted honors and awards in fine arts and social activism. She's a renowned environmental leader who has initated grants for preservation, conservation, and scientific research related to the environment, as well as formed many organizations - - such as Second Nature, and the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning - which strive to spread environmental awareness/activism. She also works for healthy issue debate and educational programming (having done much work with PBS). As a native of Mozambique, she studied and graduated from universities in Johannesburg and Geneva with degrees in foreign language (she fluently speaks 5 different languages) and literature.
Not a bad power couple, with international influence.
One can argue that a Massachusetts lib can't win the big one, but by 2008, if I understand my history and economic cycles well enough, a war-weary nation with bigger economic woes than we've seen in a few decades might be able to stomach a guy like Kerry.
I'd agree that many libs can't carry their own weight, but Kerry at least can carry all his luggage.... and has.
The 2004 race, then, would be to get his name better known in the hinterlands, while letting Al take the big suicide plunge against Dubya. Politically, it seems reasonable to me. |
