Blog4kerry - He's the Real Deal

Our guy hammering home the message in the rain. What a great shot!

Values and Language

Here is a Denver Post article about Kerry discussing values and abortion.

I love Kerry taking it to BushCo on their definition of values. First, we are attacking, not getting attacked. Second, Kerry is starting to define the language he wants to run on, not their language.

At a barbecue here, he argued that there was “nothing conservative” about values that produced growing deficits, stagnating wages and a middle class squeezed by rising costs for health care, education and child care, all of which he tied to President George W. Bush.

Moreover, Kerry, a Roman Catholic, added: “I’m a person of faith, and I know I’m surrounded by people of faith. But there’s nothing conservative about allowing your administration to cross that beautiful line drawn by the founding fathers that separates affairs of church and state in the United States of America.”


Last summer, I was a Progressive Choices PAC event where Kerry spoke. (fyi, he took no money from the PAC like the other Presidential candidates who spoke to the group). Kerry really talked indepth about how he wanted to change the language the Republicans use in the media. He discussed how he would use the bully pulpit to bring change. If you are looking for an example of what he meant, national security equals energy independence. This is a perfect example of how tying a progressive value to a need will change how people will use the language.

Now to the abortion issue... BushCo is going to make a big stink about Kerry's statement on abortion. The media is already billing it as a slip. First, here is what he said:

“I oppose abortion personally,” he told the newspaper. “I don’t like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception. But I can’t take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist who doesn’t share it.”



In the two clips that I saw on TV, the media outlets stopped the quote at "I believe life does begin at conception." Misleading or just editing for shorting? I think it is misleading to give the quote without the entire context. But whatever...

Go ahead and let a media firestorm start over this issue. No need to kill it. Maybe even wait till the debates and let Bush bring it up. Here is a hypothetical:

Bush: My opponent thinks life begins at conception, but yet for abortion. This shows he has no core center.

Kerry: I can’t take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist who doesn’t share it.” Didn't we learn this Ain fghanistan from the Taliban. The reason our country has been so successful as a nation in nurturing religion is because we kept a wall between the state and people trying to push their religious views on other people by using the law.


Will the religious conservatives in Alabama accept this? Probably not… However, will enough Catholics in the Midwest who were Reagan Democrats get it? Yes. Will the soccer Mom who voted for Bush the first round get it? Yes. The single woman who has never felt the need to vote before? Yes.

Bring it on...