Clinton leads Democratic charge at convention

By Dan Balz
The Washington Post

SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton introduces her husband, former President Bill Clinton, before his speech last night at the Democratic National Convention.

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To a chorus of cheers and sustained applause, Clinton called the 2004 election a stark choice between two major political parties with deeply held and fundamentally different views of how to meet challenges at home and abroad.

"We Democrats want to build a world and an America of shared responsibilities and shared opportunities ... where we act alone only when we have to," he said. Republicans, Clinton added, "believe in an America run by the right people — their people — in a world in which America acts unilaterally when we can and cooperates when we have to."

Clinton staunchly defended Kerry, saying that at a time when young men like himself, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had found ways to avoid going to Vietnam in the 1960s, Kerry had volunteered for service there. And he mocked Bush and the GOP for suggesting that Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards, would be soft on terrorism. "Strength and wisdom are not conflicting values," he said. "They go hand in hand."

With Kerry and Edwards campaigning their way to Boston through battleground states, the opening-night program also featured former President Jimmy Carter, former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. The Democratic luminaries sent a jolt of energy through Boston's FleetCenter that got the convention off on the high note that organizers had hoped for.

	RON EDMONDS / AP Former Vice President Al Gore addresses the Democratic National Convention, joking about his 2000 election defeat but also strongly criticizing President Bush and urging Democrats to unite behind Sen. John Kerry.

Gore opened his speech with humor about his fate in the 2000 election, then issued an appeal to both those who backed Bush four years ago and those who supported independent Ralph Nader, urging them to reconsider what their actions had meant for the country.

"I want to say to all Americans this evening that whether it is the threat to the global environment or the erosion of America's leadership in the world, whether it is the challenge to our economy from new competitors or the challenge to our security from new enemies, I believe we need new leadership that is both strong and wise," Gore said.

Carter was more pointed in his critique of Bush's record. "The United States has alienated its allies, dismayed its friends and inadvertently gratified its enemies by proclaiming a confused and disturbing strategy of pre-emptive war," he said. "With our allies disunited, the world resenting us and the Middle East ablaze, we need John Kerry to restore life to the global war against terrorism."

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Despite claims by Kerry campaign officials and Democratic Party leaders that this convention would accentuate the positive, the first night's speeches echoed the same criticisms of Bush that Kerry, Edwards and other candidates for the Democratic nomination have sounded throughout the campaign.

But with Kerry in an extremely tight contest with Bush and seeking to use the four-day gathering to flesh out his political profile and convince voters that he is fit to serve as commander in chief in a time of terrorism, yesterday's speakers also sought to highlight what they described as Kerry's courage and fitness to lead and said he would provide a needed contrast to the leadership style of the incumbent president.

"He will lead the world, not alienate it," Hillary Clinton said. "Lower the deficit, not raise it. Create good jobs, not lose them. Solve a health-care crisis, not ignore it."

The 44th Democratic convention marked the first major party convention since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the extraordinary security around Boston's FleetCenter and throughout this historic city offered a reminder of the dramatically altered landscape on which the 2004 election is being fought.

Clinton produced the evening's highlight reel, with an oratorical flourish designed to remind voters of the prosperity his eight years in office had brought to the country and to argue forcefully that it was Democratic policies that had produced those conditions.

Bush, he said, had squandered "an amazing opportunity to bring the country together under his slogan of compassionate conservatism and to unite the world in the struggle against terror" in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Instead, he said, the president and his congressional allies chose to "push the country too far to the right and to walk away from our allies."

	STEPHAN SAVOIA / AP Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, left, and Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell join New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on stage last night.

He said Republicans had supported tax cuts for wealthy Americans like himself at the expense of programs aimed at helping children and working families with child care, job retraining and after-school assistance.

"If you agree with all that, by all means, re-elect them," he said. "If not, John Kerry and John Edwards are your team for the future."

Gore was the first of the major speakers last night and he began on a humorous note with a reference to his bitter defeat in 2000, when he won the popular vote but lost the presidency after a 36-day recount in Florida that ended with a Supreme Court decision that tipped the Electoral College vote to Bush.

"I know from my own experience," he said, "that America is a land of opportunity where every little boy and girl has a chance to grow up and win the popular vote."

Gore then argued that Bush abandoned his pledges to unify the country and pursue compassionate conservatism. Instead, he said, Bush has weakened environmental protections, brought about the erosion of civil liberties and turned record projected surpluses into record deficits. "Let's make sure that the Supreme Court does not pick the next president," he said, "and that this president is not the one who picks the next Supreme Court."

The former vice president saved his strongest words for Bush's conduct of foreign policy, an area he has spoken about repeatedly in the past two years, beginning with a speech in 2002 urging Congress not to give Bush the power to go to war with Iraq unilaterally. Gore said Bush diverted critical resources from the battle to defeat Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network to lead the United States into Iraq.

"Wouldn't we be better off with a new president who hasn't burned his bridges to our allies and who could rebuild respect for America in the world?" he asked.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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