LA Weekly, July 23-29, 2004
15 Weeks and Counting
It’s Not Just the Stupid Economy
Can Kerry, soon to be anointed the anti-Bush, find a message to carry the Democrats to victory?
by Howard Blume
But can this man give a straight answer to a probing question?
So how are things in Ohio?
With any luck for John Kerry, not too good.
Nurse Pat Beane presents a near perfect crucible for the 2004 race for president. It starts with her location, in Ohio’s Stark County, where voters have correctly called the last nine elections, back to Richard Nixon. She is watching, waiting, for the appearance of the Democratic presidential hopeful in the trussed-out girls’ gym of Perry High School, “Home of the Panthers,” where banners proclaim, “A Stronger Economy for America’s Workers.”
Beane voted for George Bush in 2000, tired of the moral turpitude she perceived in the Clinton White House. Bush impressed her as a man of decency and upright personal values. Four years later, she now says of Bush: “It’s not his character; it’s his choices.”
Kerry has a shot at her vote because of her unexpectedly less rosy world. She’s on strike with fellow nurses from Akron General Medical Center. The rising cost of health benefits could more than cancel out proposed raises. Pension-benefit reductions also are on the table.
“We’re taking care of people’s lives every day,” she says, “and we can’t even get decent health care.” Also, two grandchildren, who have serious, ongoing health problems, are about to lose government-subsidized health coverage in a round of budget cuts.
“And why should we go to another country and fight their war when there’s poor people in town?” adds the 56-year-old nurse. “My plan was to retire at 60. Now, it looks like I’m going to be working till I’m 70.”
She blames Bush.
So far, so good for the Democratic nominee.
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Kerry’s still on the hunt for themes to go along with his Economics Simplified. His campaign-trail closer has been “Let America be America again,” quoting from a Langston Hughes poem. So far, the tag hasn’t gotten as much notice as the “Two Americas” trademark of running mate Edwards.
In Phoenix, Kerry’s tailored message to Latinos focused on education and immigration reform. Kerry said he wants immigrants raised in the U.S. to qualify for lower “in-state” college-tuition rates. He also talked of immigration reform that reunites families. And how he wants to prevent the exploitation of immigrant workers who risk their lives to cross the border. All of these points drew standing ovations from the audience of about 5,000 at the National Council of La Raza.
La Raza is nonpartisan, but the event sure sounded like a Kerry rally. Bush turned down an invitation to appear, but Arizona Senator John McCain, the popular conservative Republican, addressed La Raza on a different day, inevitably leading to buzz about the fantasy Kerry-McCain ticket that could never be.
Kerry was in and out of Arizona’s 108-degree heat within six hours, but still managed to exhibit his less-than-deft side. First, his speech, originally billed as a Town Hall Q&A, went on so long that there was hardly time for questions. Second, he managed to alienate some Latinos in a brief post-speech interview, when he came out against driver’s licenses for Latinos who’d entered the country illegally.
The remark “undercut the pro-immigrant statements he made in his speech,” said La Raza spokeswoman Lisa Navarrete. “His campaign was hedging later, but he himself said he thought it wasn’t a good idea for security reasons. We argue that it is a good idea precisely for security reasons.”
A Kerry spokesperson explained the full Kerry nuance later. “He believes that this is an issue that should be left to the states,” said Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli. “He said that personally he does not support it, but he won’t oppose a state’s decision. It’s a matter of jurisdiction.”
Which leads to a new trivia question. What do immigrant drivers and gay lovers tying the knot have in common? Answer: John Kerry’s against you, but won’t stop a state from being for you — or from being against you. Or maybe what Kerry’s really implying is that he secretly supports marrying-gays and driving-immigrants, but he can’t express that because it might cost him votes, and he’s pretty sure most gays and Latinos will have to vote for him, anyway.
Are we inspired yet?
Well, at least one inspired endorsement came from former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, who fairly gushed about Kerry’s Web site during their backslapping joint appearance at San Jose State.
Iacocca emphasized his conversion by acknowledging that he’d once cut commercials touting George W. Bush. In fact, he named so many Republicans he’d voted for that one person in the audience called out: “We forgive you.”
Kerry, the top-of-the-ticket Yalie who made good grades, had no particular stumbles in Silicon Valley. At a San Jose fund-raiser, scientist Bill Lee, 49, found Kerry likably “funny” and “comfortable with his material.” Consultant Lynda Sanders, 52, originally from England, thought “He touched on the key points,” that he was “human, not a stuffed shirt at all.”
Clearly, the moneyed, liberal, cultural elite really are his kind of people. They didn’t need a cue card to cheer when Kerry pledged to be “a president who believes in science.” They ate up his proposed tax breaks for businesses that hire U.S. workers and government funding for high-risk, high-yield research. At one clubby San Jose shindig, Carole King sang a ditty before dashing off to a grandchild’s graduation.
full: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/35/15-blume.php
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