[Mb-civic] Philadelphia Enquirer Endorses Kerry

[Kevin Walz]

> Today The Philadelphia Inquirer, one of our nation's leading papers,
> endorsed John Kerry for president. Here's the forceful and eloquent
> piece, reproduced in its entirety:
>
> Editorial | "KERRY FOR PRESIDENT" - The Philadelphia Inquirer
>
> The choice is vivid. The stakes are vast.
>
> Our nation is threatened by jihad warriors who scoff at boundaries.
> It stumbles toward a fiscal ruin that will punish our children. The
> rules that protect our air, water and health are weaker than we know.
> When 45 million of our neighbors fall ill, they have no insurance
> card to hand to the doctor.
>
> We boast of exporting liberty and rule of law, yet watch them erode
> at home. A hooded prisoner on a box has replaced a soaring lady with
> a lamp as the global icon of America's intentions. Our national
> discourse has grown peevish, choking on distortion and bile.
>
> On Nov. 2, we can return to office the man who, since 2001, has
> spawned some of those ills and s hown a shaky touch at healing the
> others.
>
> Or we can go a new way, one alert to fresh global challenges yet
> rooted in the approaches that made the 1990s so productive. We can
> elect Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.
>
> Dear fellow citizen, this is as important an election as any in which
> you've had a chance to vote.
>
> The Inquirer's urgent, deeply felt recommendation: Cast that ballot
> on Nov. 2 for JOHN F. KERRY.
>
> The case for Kerry has two parts. The first is the record of George
> W. Bush. The evidence is compelling, though tallied in sorrow: His
> was a presidency of high promise that lapsed into multiple disasters.
>
> On his watch, useful surpluses have become a sea of red ink. The
> economic rebound he bought with tax cuts is mild, barely more than
> would have occurred in the natural cycle. Those slanted tax changes
> have left society more unequal, its safety net frayed. His team's
> habits of ignoring science and punishing dissent ha mper the search
> for solutions.
>
> His plan for a second term is not to repair those mistakes, but to
> expand and entrench them.
>
> Most worrisome, his response to the stunning blows of 9/11 has gone
> fatefully awry. He has left Americans less safe than they could be
> and America less admired than it should be.
>
> Those are strong words. You deserve to see them documented thoroughly.
>
> That is why, beginning today, we present a 21-day editorial series.
> It will review the facts of the Bush record on an array of issues,
> from homeland security to Head Start, contrasting it with Kerry's
> ideas. The first appears below. Most days, on the facing page, a
> prominent supporter of President Bush will provide a contrasting view.
>
> You deserve a fair and frank debate.
>
> You also deserve a fair picture of the second half of the case for
> change: the record and views of John Kerry.
>
> This, very few of you have gotten during a petty, dispiriting
> campaign. So me blame rests with the Democrat. He has not framed the
> debate with the force and clarity he must master to be an outstanding
> president.
>
> More blame, though, rests with Bush. Awash in millions from the
> corporate donors to whom his White House caters so avidly, the
> President has spent more time ridiculing Kerry through distortions
> than presenting his own plans.
>
> Bush backers cling to a tired, tiresome slogan of elections past:
> Kerry is a clueless liberal, out of touch with the American
> mainstream.
>
> Here is what Kerry thinks, and what his record as a U.S. senator,
> lieutenant governor and prosecutor underscores:
>
> John Kerry thinks government should pursue solutions to problems that
> haunt American lives, but must pay for each initiative as it goes -
> not stick the nation's children with the tab. Robert Rubin, the
> superb Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, praises Kerry as a
> senator who stood tall on the tough votes that tamed deficits.
>
> He thinks work is better than welfare; he voted for welfare reform.
>
> He thinks it's unacceptable that 45 million Americans lack health
> coverage; he has a smart plan to shrink that number dramatically.
>
> He wants science to do all it can to speed cures for illnesses.
>
> He knows that protection of America's air, land and water can't be
> left to the whims of corporations.
>
> He doesn't just shrug when he sees American children slipping into
> poverty, or more paychecks losing buying power.
>
> If those aren't mainstream American values, then God help America.
> But of course these are American values.
>
> If you're an undecided voter, consider this: As president, Kerry will
> have to work with a Congress where at least one chamber is
> Republican. Checks and balances, a prescription for moderation. A
> vote for Bush risks one-party rule, with Congress under the control
> of aggressive conservatives and reelection concerns no longer
> checking Bush's impulses.
>
> You've heard - eight gazillion times - that John Kerry is a flip-
> flopper. No doubt, he's a man who relishes nuance. His penchant for
> thinking out loud is ill-suited to a sound-bite culture. He'll have
> to curb that, seeking a more disciplined clarity. But the flip-flop
> label rests mainly on one sound bite. All together now: "I voted for
> the $87 billion before I voted against it."
>
> Muddy words, but a defensible vote. The Bush campaign's incessant
> mockery of it relies on voters' unfamiliarity with the workings of
> the Senate, where two or more versions of a bill often come up for
> votes. Kerry voted for a Democratic version of this Iraq
> appropriation, which would have rescinded tax cuts for the affluent
> to pay for body armor, etc., for the troops. The GOP version, which
> passed easily, added to the ever-growing load of debt we are leaving
> to our kids.
>
> Let's deal with another pack of poisonous distortions: Vietnam.
>
> Kerry served, showed courage, won medals, then raised an honorable,
> if hyperbolic, alarm about a misguided war. Case closed. Perhaps the
> Boston convention overdid the allusions to those facts, but that
> doesn't justify the baseless Swift-boat assaults of August.
>
> Kerry doesn't talk much about his Senate record, a curious omission.
> That record isn't spectacular, but it is solid and qualifying. Names
> on bills are just one road to effectiveness. Kerry took the less
> glamorous path of investigation. He had major successes.
>
> He was one of the first to spot and expose the scandal that came to
> be known as Iran-contra. He took the lead in unraveling the criminal
> deeds of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which
> financed drug cartels and terrorists. Finally, he worked well with
> John McCain and others to resolve the emotional issue of Vietnam MIAs.
>
> Not flashy, not easy. Just important.
>
> The BCCI probe showed Kerry spotting early on a key thread in the
> global web of terror .
>
> Thwarting terrorism is a president's core job in these haunted times.
> Kerry's approach is more thorough than that of Bush, whose two main
> tools seem to be bombs and bombast. Bush's reckless missteps in Iraq
> have cost a painful toll in lives, credibility, alliances, Islamic
> anger and lost opportunities.
>
> Kerry is right to press hard on: tracking down loose nuclear material
> in Russia and elsewhere; repairing alliances that can help spot
> terror cells and roll up financing networks; better securing our
> chemical and nuclear plants and ports.
>
> It is absurd to claim that, had Kerry been president on that awful
> day in 2001, he would merely have shrugged and sent a strongly worded
> memo to the World Court. Any president would have done much of what
> Bush did in late 2001 - with less soaring eloquence perhaps. But few
> would have raced as he did into the deadly detour of Iraq.
>
> John Kerry isn't perfect. He has things to learn. One thing Americans
> should hav e learned by now, though, is that the incumbent lacks the
> realism, judgment and ability to adjust to events that the United
> States needs in its commander in chief. In this perilous moment, the
> safer choice, the wiser choice, is John F. Kerry.
>
> 23 DAYS LEFT