Democrats Talk Up Kerry (on Nat'l Security) While Confronting Bush

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-assess27jul27.story

Democrats Talk Up Kerry While Confronting Bush
By Ronald Brownstein
Times Staff Writer

July 27, 2004

BOSTON — Day One of the Democratic National Convention underscored Sen. John F. Kerry's determination to challenge President Bush on national security while emphasizing a deeply personal contrast rooted in their divergent experiences during the Vietnam era.

From Presidents Carter and Clinton to 2000 nominee Al Gore and former Defense Secretary William J. Perry, a succession of speakers Monday night charged that Bush had failed to improve America's security since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. That signaled the Democrats' determination to confront the president on the national security record his campaign has assumed would be his strongest asset.

Even more strikingly, Clinton and Carter not only articulated the familiar Democratic argument that Kerry's experience in Vietnam has prepared him to serve as commander in chief, but pointedly contrasted his service with Bush's decision to serve in the National Guard at that time.

In an explicit and combative passage, Clinton declared: "During the Vietnam War, many young men — including the current president, the vice president and me — could have gone to Vietnam and didn't. John Kerry came from a privileged background and he could have avoided going too. Instead, he said: 'Send me.' "<snip>


<snip>The Democratic case for Kerry on national security boiled down to the argument that he would be just as tough as Bush, but smarter, by enlisting more support from allies and deliberating more carefully before committing American forces to battle. Clinton, in a phrase that electrified the crowd, put the argument most succinctly when he said, "Strength and wisdom are not opposing values."

Yet Bush will have a case in this argument as well. While polls show most Americans want the nation to work in concert with others, surveys also show that most Americans don't want other countries to dictate our actions. What Kerry portrays as greater cooperation, Bush at his convention next month is almost certain to present as capitulation to the demands of other nations.

The Democratic case, said Feaver, "is an effective superficial line. But it allows the Republicans to say … do you want a president who can't say no to allies, can't say no to the U.N. and who doesn't make a decision until he's gotten Paris' permission slip?"<snip>