OVER three days, the Democratic convention in Boston was built carefully to a crescendo on Thursday night when Sen. John Kerry strode out to formally accept the presidential nomination. The fear was that the keynote address of this notoriously wooden public speaker would be an utter anticlimax that would fatally damage the Democratic campaign before it even began. In the event, John Kerry gave a creditable performance.It was a good speech which opened with America’s position in the world and its need to restore the respect of other countries and work to rebuild the alliances that the Bush administration has so precipitously elbowed aside. America’s leadership, particularly in the war on terror, could not be unilateral. It had to be undertaken in consultation and cooperation with its friends. All this was as encouraging as it was wise.
Then Kerry moved on to the Democrats’ domestic agenda, where US political wisdom has it that presidential elections are exclusively won and lost. His promises on jobs, pensions and welfare, health and the environment were all good strong Democratic politics though he sidestepped the contradictions inherent in cutting tax breaks for big business while boosting industry. He also fudged the issue of world trade where US agricultural subsidies are part of the problem and not once did he mention the Third World, its debt burden or the disadvantage US farm subsides place its own agriculture. He went on to express his desire for America to cease to be held hostage because of its dependence on Middle East oil. This sentiment will give support to those who continue to claim that Washington’s Iraq invasion — which, however he now reinterprets his action, John Kerry backed — was at heart all about oil.
There was also disappointingly nothing about the Palestinian peace process and the search for a just settlement. The Sept. 11 attacks have promoted foreign policy to the electorate’s attention only because it is seen that the future safety of the US can only be ensured by hunting down the overseas terrorist threat. However, Kerry aides probably judged that this opening salvo from their White House candidate did not need to address the complexities of the Palestine issue, even though this has so fueled the anger in the Arab world at large.
In all, though the world has seen a convincing launch to the Kerry campaign which, through its stress on listening to and working with overseas friends and allies already offers a stark contrast to the bull-necked foreign policy of the Bush White House.
Now it will be the turn of the Republicans to set out their stall and try convince the American voters that the midst of a war against international terror is no time to change commanders in chief. Sen. Kerry may have been a brave Vietnam veteran but George W. Bush is currently in command and Republicans will try and present his stubbornness and inflexibility as guts and strength in the finest tradition of successful US generals.
