POLITICAL MEMO - NYT
Two Different Democrats, Same Advisers and Ideas
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
ONTARIO, Calif., Feb. 24 — When John Kerry was asked to list his closest foreign policy advisers the other day, he served up two names: Richard C. Holbrooke and Samuel R. Berger, veterans of Bill Clinton's presidency.
When John Edwards, Mr. Kerry's main opponent in the Democratic presidential nomination battle, was asked the same question in a separate interview this week with reporters and editors of The New York Times, he also served up two names: Mr. Holbrooke and Mr. Berger.
Both Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards said the mayor of San Francisco should stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Both said they opposed gay marriage but supported some form of civil unions for gays.
Both men, notwithstanding any reservations they might have voiced to Democratic voters earlier, offered some praise of free trade. Both said they wanted to roll back some of President Bush's tax cuts.
They even suggested some similarities in their upbringing. Mr. Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, said he grew up as an altar boy, emphasizing qualities he thought would help his candidacy fly south of the Mason-Dixon line. Mr. Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, offered himself as someone who is "from the rural South, a place that is very culturally conservative."
The remarks by the two men stood as evidence of what has proved to be a big obstacle facing them in this long-awaited two-person contest leading up to the 10-state vote on Tuesday. For all their efforts to discover space between them, Mr. Edwards and Mr. Kerry hold strikingly similar views of the world's problems and what to do about them.
But they have different views of each other's political appeal and strength as a Democratic opponent to Mr. Bush. And that was abundantly clear at the end of these two interview sessions.
"He's done a great job in a short span of time," Mr. Kerry said of Mr. Edwards, who has served five years in Washington. Mr. Kerry left the contrast with his own "35 years of experience" in government, a phrase he used at least twice, hanging.
For his part, Mr. Edwards said of the American electorate: "I just say this directly. They want someone who will inspire them, who can lift them up."
In many ways, their appearances underlined the very stylistic differences that they have been trying to point out in the closing days of this part of what has largely been an issue-free campaign.
Mr. Kerry seemed more in command of the foreign policy angle of the day, effortlessly discussing the history of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti and the problems there. "Not to pander, but your editorial this morning hit it right on the head," Mr. Kerry said. He went on to say that he would not support a military intervention by the United States right now, but added that such a move that it might make sense later on.
By contrast, Mr. Edwards responded with uncertainty about the violence in Haiti and whether the United States should send forces there. "You know, I don't have — I can't set some arbitrary — I think it's a judgment that you have to make on a case by case," he said.
Mr. Edwards was lively and engaging, smiling and leaning into his questioners as he talked animatedly about everything from free trade to his upbringing in a mill town. He joked and spoke passionately about what, he said, would make him a powerful candidate against Mr. Bush.
"If we don't have a candidate who can effectively make the case against Bush and tap into those emotions that you're talking about, we won't win," he said.
Mr. Kerry, who has by now spent a year observing Mr. Edwards, also smiled and leaned into his questioners, referring to them by first name and offering a joke or two. Mr. Kerry said he had learned a lot about being a candidate from his near-loss in Iowa, and he bristled at a suggestion that Mr. Edwards's gains on him in the closing days of some of these primaries suggested that voters found Mr. Edwards more likable.
"I wouldn't agree with the premise," he said.
Still, more than once, Mr. Kerry's answers would wander down the tracks, thick with the Washingtonese that he had moments earlier said had been purged from his speech, as his listeners sunk deeper into their seats. An aide seated near him did not try to hide a yawn or two.
Not surprisingly for two men running for president, each evaded problematic questions, though in different ways: When asked if he would as president take the politically risky step of eliminating protections for the American sugar and cotton industries, Mr. Edwards smiled broadly and told the paper's editorial board, "Don't I wish I could give you what you want."
"I'm not for eliminating subsidies for family farmers," he said. "I am for eliminating subsidies for corporate farming operations, people who make over a million dollars a year in net profits."
When a questioner noted that the Louisiana primary is two weeks away, Mr. Edwards responded: "Yeah, you think I don't know that? Yeah, I think I'll stick where I am on that."
Mr. Kerry was similarly nonresponsive: "That is one of those issues that will be under review" in the first 120 days of his presidency, he said.
Mr. Kerry answered most questions, at least eventually, and often after an adventurous digression (a request to name his domestic policy advisers produced a five-minute discussion of his health care plan).
But even at this late date in the primary campaign, there were times Mr. Edwards seemed caught off guard by fairly standard questions. When he was asked to name his domestic advisers, Mr. Edwards pursed his lips and wrinkled his brow. "Let me think," he said. "You're testing me. Who have I been talking to about economic policy? It's been so long since I talked to anybody other than myself about economic policy."
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