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Politics : WHO IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2004 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (5922)	10/28/2003 12:52:45 PM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 10965

LOL! Kerry is still losing points in the polls because HE WAFFLED ON IRAQ!

To: American Spirit who wrote (5922)	10/28/2003 3:11:54 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10965

FWIW, Steve Neal generally has a moderate left of center bias. suntimes.com Kerry's new book details his philosophy October 27, 2003 BY STEVE NEAL SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST It's a political tradition. On their respective roads to the White House, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton outlined their agendas in best-selling campaign books. Before launching their presidential candidacies, Gen. Wesley Clark, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) weighed in with their campaign books. In A Call to Service: My Vision for A Better America (Viking, $24.95), Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tells his story and gives an indication where he would take the country if elected as the next president. It's a thoughtful book and worthwhile reading for anyone interested in the Democratic presidential race. It has been more than 30 years since Kerry first gained national attention as a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He served in the Navy and was awarded a Silver Star, Bronze Star with valor, and three Purple Hearts. Historian Douglas Brinkley is coming out with a book of his own about Kerry's years in Vietnam. In his book, Kerry describes his close friendship with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the former Vietnam prisoner of war and GOP presidential contender. "Neither of us has much use for those in either party who complain that we should keep to our own partisan interests," Kerry writes. "In fact, we have discovered that we share something far more precious than party: a common call to service." Kerry, in making the case against President Bush, laments that Bush has embraced "a Republicanism that's drifted far from its roots as the party of Lincoln and is obsessed with dividing the Union that Lincoln saved." In outlining his differences with Bush, Kerry supports civil rights and affirmative action; making health care accessible to the uninsured; reducing the gap between rich and poor schools, and making our tax system more fair. On foreign policy, Kerry vows that if elected president, he would be a coalition builder. "Democrats can and must offer an alternative to the Bush administration's contemptuous unilateralism and its inability to deploy effectively the tools of diplomacy as it does those of war," Kerry writes. "At the same time, we cannot let our national security agenda be defined by those who reflexively oppose any military intervention anywhere as a repetition of Vietnam and who see U.S. power as mostly a malignant force in world politics." On this issue, Kerry has been on the defensive in recent debates with former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. In the Senate, Kerry voted for U.S. military intervention against Saddam Hussein. Dean opposed the war. Kerry's recent suggestion that he voted for the war resolution but didn't favor going to war isn't credible. In this book, he indicates that if elected to the presidency he would be restrained in the use of military force. Although a liberal Democrat, Kerry acknowledges that his party doesn't have a monopoly on good ideas. He says that Ronald Reagan's new federalism had merit. He also says that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was on the right track in seeking to reform the armed services, though Rumsfeld did not succeed. Kerry writes about his fight against cancer. He underwent prostate surgery last winter. "My father died of this disease, so I knew I was at risk and received annual PSA screenings," he writes. "It dawned on me while I was lying in that hospital bed what the whole experience might have been like if I hadn't been a senator and, worse yet, wasn't covered by health insurance." His health care plan, Kerry writes, would give uninsured Americans the same level of health insurance that members of Congress have. As Kerry embarked on his presidential campaign, the Boston Globe reported new details about his family history. The Globe disclosed that the senator's paternal grandfather, Fritz Kohn, was an Austrian Jew who changed his name to Kerry and converted to Catholicism before immigrating to Massachusetts. "I didn't know this because my grandfather died when my father was just five years old -- a reminder of how much so much of America's history is buried," Kerry writes. "One thing that hasn't changed for me as a result of this revelation is my Catholic heritage. I am a believing and practicing Catholic." As the title indicates, a central theme of Kerry's presidential campaign is national service. He is seeking to involve more than a million Americans a year in voluntary full or part-time national service positions in the spirit of John F. Kennedy's Peace Corps and Lyndon B. Johnson's VISTA. That would be no small accomplishment. Copyright © The Sun-Times Company All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.