Reporting for duty...
Boston--It' s bad enough, says a top Kerry adviser, that George W. Bush is "living off of the most powerful presidential image in history." That would be, of course, the post-September 11 president standing at ground zero on a pile of rubble, arm around a firefighter, warning the terrorists that "the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." Combine that with the fact that between a half and a third of the voters say they don't know much about John Kerry--not about his expertise in foreign policy, not about his service in Vietnam. "When he crossed himself in front of Ronald Reagan's casket," this adviser says, "people were shocked to learn he's a Catholic."
That's why they invented conventions--to fill in the blanks and change perceptions. Four years ago, when the Republicans were thought by many to be too harsh, they morphed into a bunch of multicultural, multiracial "compassionate conservatives." This year, with the Democrats lagging behind President Bush when it comes to handling the war on terror, the Boston convention looked something like the War Channel. Generals offered fulsome testimonials to Kerry, his swift boat band of brothers vouched for his courage under fire, while former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, called Kerry "my hero." Sen. John Edwards drove the point home: "Decisive. Strong. Is this not what we need in a commander in chief?" To top it off, he sent a clear message to al Qaeda: "You cannot run. You cannot hide." Didn't Donald Rumsfeld once say that? Or was it Reagan?
By the time Kerry took to the podium, it was no surprise that he kept to the talking points. "We are a nation at war," he declared, sounding oddly like Bush, the self-proclaimed "war president." And while he made the case that war would always be a last resort--and not a matter of choice--he also laid down the gauntlet: "Let there be no mistake," he said. "I will never hesitate to use force when it is required."
But why all the talk about guns? Aren't Democrats supposed to talk about education and healthcare and the environment and the economy? It's pretty simple, says a top Kerry adviser: Before you can get to any of those issues, you have to cross the commander-in-chief threshold. "People have to look at John Kerry and say he can run a war," says a top aide. "Once you establish your credentials on that, the rest of your issues can work for you." Voters already trust Kerry on the domestic stuff, but they're still shaky about him as a war leader. "Now," Delaware Sen. Joe Biden told me, "the focus is, 'OK, this new guy, what do we know about him, and can he protect us?' " None of this makes Kerry advisers jump for joy, but they know it's a hurdle they have to clear. "It's just the way it is," shrugs a key Kerry adviser. "People still give the president the benefit of the doubt, and we have to take some of that away."
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