John Kerry’s Familial Envoy to the Left
Press Action
Thursday, March 04, 2004
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/hand03042004/
By Mark Hand
The Democratic Party loyalists are right: there is a difference between Kerry and Bush. The difference, however, is between the policy positions of Vanessa Kerry, the candidate’s 26-year-old daughter, and the White House incumbent, not candidate Kerry and George W.
John Kerry is sending Vanessa, who’s taken leave from medical school, into election battle in order to galvanize support among younger voters and the liberals and leftists who supported Kucinich, Sharpton and Dean during the Democratic primary season.
Kerry is expected to choose a vice-presidential running mate who is unlikely to stir much enthusiasm among the democratic wing of the Democratic Party. And Kerry knows he can take for granted -without much backlash -the support of liberals and leftists who have reflexively embraced the Anybody-But-Bush credo. His work during the next eight months will be centered on attracting the support of Reagan Democrats and independents who back Bush’s wars against liberty across the globe but who question the president’s handling of issues related to their pocketbooks.
In order to cover all of his bases, though, Kerry won’t completely ignore the liberals and leftists. Vanessa Kerry will serve as the candidate’s ambassador to these groups in order to keep them energized about his candidacy during the next eight months as her father romances segments of the American right.
Although she’s adept at promoting her father’s agenda on the campaign trail, Vanessa Kerry does have opinions that run counter to the positions supported by both Bush and her father.
“I am my own person from my father, and you don’t really come more liberal than me,” Vanessa said. On the question of gay marriage, Vanessa responded, “I would answer that question with ‘Absolutely they should be able to [get married]. Are you joking?’”
When he was his daughter’s age, Kerry also held some non-establishment views, including his prominent stance against the U.S. war in Vietnam. Perhaps holding enlightened opinions in your twenties and then discarding them later in life is a Kerry family trait.
Evidently, Abbie’s axiom -"Don’t trust anyone over 30” -still has credence when assessing the Kerry’s of Boston. Perhaps the Democrats should instead recruit Vanessa to run for the White House this election season before she finishes medical school and matures into a crusty member of the Washington or Boston establishment.
Vanessa is a mild liberal on most issues, with an occasional independent streak. On the ouster of Aristide from Haiti, she said at a campaign stop for her father in New York on Monday that the Bush administration “just helped overthrow, basically overthrow a democratically elected president.” When asked about his daughter’s comments, John Kerry replied, “I didn’t say that,” but added that the Bush administration “empowered the opposition, the insurgents” by allowing the situation in Haiti to deteriorate.
John Kerry is counting on Vanessa to keep the liberals and leftists from getting too restless or too interested in Ralph Nader’s ideas as he takes on the task of convincing the media and much of the electorate that he’s not a liberal and that he would keep America strong in the international arena.
Mark Hand is editor of Press Action and Little Bird Express.