JFK or GWB?

Supporters of Senator John Kerry's bid for the presidency like to point out the similarities between their man and the last Massachusetts politician whose initials were J.F.K. However, listening to Kerry's announcement of his candidacy, I thought he sounded more like another president, with the letter "W" rather than "F" in the middle of his initials.

Kerry's salient points included...

This is no ordinary campaign because this is no ordinary time. We have lived through the most deadly attack on our people in American history, the greatest job loss since the Great Depression and the greatest loss of wealth and of savings ever recorded. But every time that our country has faced great challenges, we have come through and we have come out stronger because courageous Americans have done what is right for America. This is the time for the same kind of courage.

Three years ago, in George W. Bush's speech accepting his party's nomination, he said:

My father was the last president of a great generation. A generation of Americans who stormed beaches, liberated concentration camps and delivered us from evil. Some never came home. Those who did put their medals in drawers, went to work, and built on a heroic scale ... highways and universities, suburbs and factories, great cities and grand alliances -- the strong foundations of an American Century. Now the question comes to the sons and daughters of this achievement... What is asked of us? This is a remarkable moment in the life of our nation. Never has the promise of prosperity been so vivid. But times of plenty, like times of crisis, are tests of American character.

I am running so that we can keep America's promise to reward the hard work of middle-class Americans and pull down the barriers that stand in the way of those who are struggling to join them, to restore our true strength in the world which comes from ideals, not arrogance, to renew the commitment of our generation to pass this planet on to our children better than it was given to us. I reject George Bush's radical new vision of a government that comforts the comfortable at the expense of ordinary Americans.

And we will extend the promise of prosperity to every forgotten corner of this country. To every man and woman, a chance to succeed. To every child, a chance to learn. To every family, a chance to live with dignity and hope. For eight years, the Clinton/Gore administration has coasted through prosperity. And the path of least resistance is always downhill. But America's way is the rising road.

But if I am president of the United States, our beloved country will never go to war because we want to, we will go to war because we have to.

When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming.

Pride is no substitute for protecting our young men and women in uniform. Half the names on the Vietnam Memorial are there because of pride, because of a president who refused to admit we were on the wrong road, that we might be wrong. Pride is no excuse for making enemies overseas. It is time to return to the United Nations, not with the arrogance of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, but with genuine respect

A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam.

I don't want America to turn its back on half a century of effort by every president to reduce the nuclear threat. I'm running to put America where we rightfully belong, leading the way to a new international accord on nuclear proliferation and make the world itself safer for human survival.

I will work to reduce nuclear weapons and nuclear tension in the world -- to turn these years of influence into decades of peace.

Kerry goes on to advocate being strong in the fight against terrorism, reducing Middle East oil dependence, protecting the environment, tax cuts for the middle class, simplifying the tax code, improving education in underperforming schools, fixing the health care crisis (though he does advocate a national health care plan, which Bush disagrees with), upholding the Second Amendment, and a national call to service. All of these are basic Bush positions, some nuanced differently, others (parts of the tax cut, the call to service) carbon-copied.

A few Kerry positions, notably national health care, judicial nominees and a woman's right to infanticide, are truly different than Bush's. But in general, Kerry promises more of the same, colored with a better grasp of English grammar and a weaker command of the principles of public speaking (it was painful to listen to - every sentance had the same cadence and exagerated emphases).

Summation of Kerry candidacy: he wants to be President in a bad way, but he just can't think of anything that Bush is doing wrong. Unless we really believe that he can do what Bush is doing - just 'better' - we haven't got a reason to vote for him.