"Senator Kerry should finish the debate with himself before he starts trying to explain his position to voters,"
washingtonpost.com
Kerry Suggests Monthly Debates With President
Bush Campaign Rejects the Idea
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 14, 2004; Page A05
QUINCY, Ill., March 13 -- After more than a week of trading attacks and counterattacks with President Bush, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) tried to steer the presidential campaign onto a more high-minded course, inviting Bush to a series of monthly debates on "the great issues before us."
Bush's reelection organization said no deal. "Senator Kerry should finish the debate with himself before he starts trying to explain his position to voters," said Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt.
Kerry, who called Republicans "lying" and "crooked" this week in comments picked up by an open microphone, made his pitch for debates in this Mississippi River city of 43,000 that in 1858 was the site of one of the seven famed senatorial debates between Democrat Stephen Douglas and his Republican challenger, Abraham Lincoln.
Kerry came here to stump for votes before Tuesday's Illinois primary, a contest that now appears to be a mere formality. According to a tally by the Associated Press, Kerry locked up the presidential nomination Saturday, thanks to endorsements from 162 "super delegates" who gave him the necessary 2,162 votes to win at the Democratic Party convention in July.
That result was all but a foregone conclusion, as Kerry's last major opponent, Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), dropped out of the race on March 2.
Kerry and Bush spent the past week acting as if the general election campaign were already on, exchanging invective in ads and speeches and through surrogates. The Bush campaign's first Internet ad targeting Kerry was titled with a single word that summed up its take on the Massachusetts senator: "Unprincipled." Kerry, who has been criticizing Bush almost from the start of his campaign last year, released an ad Friday that went negative on Bush's negative ad. "Doesn't America deserve more from its president than misleading, negative ads?" it asked.
Perhaps sensing that voters might grow tired of the mud wrestling almost eight months before the election, Kerry attempted to tone things down Saturday. "Everyone in politics shares the blame" for negative campaigning, he said at a stop at Quincy Junior High. "But I have come here today because I believe this campaign should be different. President Bush and I can do better -- and America deserves better."
Kerry said a series of monthly debates would enable the two major-party candidates to "present our two visions to the people for their judgment. Surely, if the attack ads can start now, at least we can agree to start a real discussion about America's future."
But partisanship was very close to the surface of Kerry's remarks. Kerry reminded his audience that Bush promised to "change the tone in Washington" when he began running for president more than four years ago. Instead, he said, Bush attacked the fitness of his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), to win the crucial South Carolina primary.
Kerry also put his own spin on the "great issues," using them to highlight themes he has repeated on the campaign trail. "Every minute that passes, we're losing two jobs and adding a million dollars to our national debt," Kerry said. "In the past three years, 3 million more Americans have slipped into poverty and 4 million more are uninsured. And 21/2 years after September 11, our firefighters are getting laid off, our troops have been left without body armor and potential allies in the war on terror have been pushed away."
Schmidt, Bush's spokesman, replied: "After calling Republicans crooks and liars, running 17 negative ads over 15,000 times and spending $6.3 million attacking the president, John Kerry is now calling for a civil debate on the issues."
Despite the heated nature of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Kerry noted that the two men traveled together to the site of the next debate the morning after appearing in Quincy.
He added, "Maybe George Bush and I won't travel on the same boat or the same airplane. But we can give this country a campaign that genuinely addresses our real issues and treats voters with respect. And who knows, maybe after it's all over, George Bush and I will be able to sit down together at a Red Sox-Rangers game and shake hands as friends."
Kerry's campaign has raised $10 million over the Internet since March 2, and it announced Saturday that campaign finance director, Peter Maroney, will move over to the Democratic National Committee to take charge of major donor fundraising in a bid to catch up with Republicans in the competition for $25,000 contributions. Maroney and Maureen White, the current DNC national finance chairwoman, will be finance co-chairmen.
A recent report by Sheryl Fred of the Center for Responsive Politics showed that the Republican National Committee far outpaced the DNC in raising $25,000 contributions, the maximum allowed by law. In 2003, the DNC received 219 such gifts, or $5.5 million, less than a third of the 689 $25,000 donations, or $17.2 million, to the RNC.
Staff writer Thomas B. Edsall in Washington contributed to this report.
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