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Democrats Assail Bush on Iraq War
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent BOSTON - Democrats assailed President Bush (news - web sites)'s handling of the Iraq (news - web sites) war Tuesday night and painted a vivid portrait of John Kerry (news - web sites) as a decorated war hero. "He earned his medals the old-fashioned way, by putting his life on the line," Teresa Heinz Kerry told the party's national convention.
More than 900 soldiers have been killed and nearly 6,000 wounded in "this
misguided war in Iraq," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news,
bio,
voting
record) told delegates packed into the FleetCenter.
And in a keynote speech that drew frequent and sustained applause, Illinois
State Sen. Barack Obama described Kerry as a Vietnam War hero who has long made
"tough choices when easier ones were available." Without mentioning Bush by
name, he said the president had failed to level with the public before ordering
troops into Iraq.
Helicopters buzzed overhead and hundreds of armed security personnel
patrolled the convention complex perimeter as 4,354 Democratic delegates and
hundreds of alternatives filed into the hall for a second night of political
oratory.
For all the professional political speechmaking, it fell to 12-year-old Ilana
Wexler of Oakland, Calif., to evoke some of the loudest applause of the night.
"Our vice president deserves a long time out," she said of Dick Cheney (news
- web
sites), who recently cussed out Sen. Patrick Leahy (news,
bio,
voting
record), D-Vt., on the Senate floor.
Kerry campaigned in Virginia and Pennsylvania en route to his arrival in the
convention city on Wednesday. "I will and I can fight a more effective war on
terror than George Bush is," he said at a Philadelphia rally.
Kerry's vice presidential running mate, Sen. John Edwards (news
- web
sites) of North Carolina, was already in town, anticipating his appearance
before the delegates and a prime-time television audience on Wednesday night.
The Massachusetts senator is in an enviable position for a challenger, with
many pre-convention polls showing him even or slightly ahead of Bush. At the
same time, a new Washington Post-ABC poll underscored the challenge confronting
the Democrat during his four-day convention.
More than half the voters surveyed said they knew only some or hardly at all
about his positions on the issues. And after months of sustained GOP television
attacks on Kerry, more than 40 percent of those polled rated the man from
Massachusetts as too liberal on most issues.
The result was a Democratic convention playbook easy to discern � skip
lightly over social issues such as abortion. And present the four-term
Massachusetts senator as strong on national security issues, a veteran who won
medals in one war and is now, a generation later, ready to lead the country in
the current one.
"When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn
obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going,"
said Obama. "... And to never, ever go to war without enough troops to win the
war, secure the peace and earn the respect of the world."
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota pursued the same
two-pronged approach, hailing Kerry as a Vietnam veteran who showed bravery
under fire while he faulted Bush's approach to national security.
"He risked his life to save the life of others, and he led his small band of
brothers to safety," Daschle said of Kerry.
At the same time, he said of the Bush administration, "We reject the claim
that we can't afford to provide our troops with access to affordable health
care. When our soldiers do right by America, we must do right by them."
If it was a message that Democrats wanted to convey, it was one the
Republicans worked to tarnish.
Cheney took up the attack while campaigning in California. "When Congress
voted to authorize force against Saddam Hussein (news
- web
sites), Sens. Kerry and Edwards voted 'yes.' But when it came time to fund
the troops doing the fighting in Iraq, it was another story," he said.
"We need a President who will back our troops 100 percent, and that's exactly
what we've got in George W. Bush."
Several of Kerry's former primary foes had their turn at the convention
podium. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (news
- web
sites), who stirred emotions early in the campaign when he vowed to
represent the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," drew some of the
loudest applause of the night.
"I was hoping for a reception like this. I was just kind of hoping it was
going to be on Thursday night," he said, a reference to when Kerry delivers his
acceptance speech.
In excerpts released in advance of Heinz Kerry's remarks, the senator's wife
skipped the criticism of the Bush administration and focused on her husband's
character.
"No one will defend this nation more vigorously than he will � and he will
always be first in the line of fire," she said.
"But he always knows the importance of getting it right," Heinz Kerry said.
"For him, the names of too many friends inscribed in the cold stone of the
Vietnam Memorial testify to the awful toll exacted by leaders who mistake
stubbornness for strength."
That was the point Kennedy addressed, although in a far more direct fashion.
By invading Iraq, he said, the Bush administration "made it harder to win the
real war on terrorism, the war against al-Qaida. None of this had to happen."
Democrats met while Bush was at his Texas ranch. White House spokeswoman
Claire Buchan said he hadn't watched any of the opening night of the convention,
and wasn't expected to tune in for the second night, either.
The evening's speaking program ran from prominent Democratic politicians to
the promising.
Kennedy was the former, a 72-year-old liberal lion who has worked hard to
bring the convention to his native city � and even harder to send his junior
Senate colleague to the Senate. The delegates erupted in cheers of "Teddy" when
he moved to the podium, but the cheers grew louder when he mentioned the names
of Kerry and Edwards.
Obama was in the latter group, the son of a goat herder from Africa and a
woman from Kansas. A 42-year-old state senator, he's an overwhelming favorite to
win election this fall as the third black senator since Reconstruction.
Like Kennedy, he accused Republicans of seeking to divide America.
"Urban against rural. City against suburb. Whites against blacks. Men against
women. Straights against gays. Americans against Americans," was how the
Massachusetts senator put it.
"America needs a genuine uniter, not a a divider who only claims to be a
uniter," he said.
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