SELLING A '68 MODEL TO '04 BUYERS:

Kerry’s agenda faces questions as race heats up: His 100-day view called undefined (Patrick Healy, August 22, 2004, Boston Globe)

At political rallies this month, John F. Kerry has positioned himself as a centrist -- declaring that he is a fiscal conservative, a devout Roman Catholic, and a farm boy at heart -- even though the nominee is fashioning a presidential agenda that draws strongly on his party's liberal tradition and that aims to energize liberals to carry him to victory on Nov. 2.

Among undecided and independent voters, Kerry touts the commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother" and then uses it as a jumping-off point. He then pledges: "I will never privatize Social Security, I will never cut Social Security benefits."

He says: "God gave [the US] only 3 percent of the world's oil reserves" to explain his $30 billion plan for energy independence and antipollution measures, and he champions his Vietnam War record, which some veterans have been trying to sully.

Yet before smaller, traditionally Democratic audiences, such as senior citizens or union members, Kerry wins rousing applause when describing an agenda for his first 100 days in office. He would raise taxes on Americans making more than $200,000, and would use the revenue to make health care "a right" for all.

On Inauguration Day, he says, he would send a bill to Congress guaranteeing universal health coverage for children. Tens of billions more dollars would go to public schools. He would order a review of trade agreements, with labor playing a role. And Kerry would go to the United Nations to "rejoin the community of nations" and commit to "strong alliances."

As Kerry battles foes over the veracity of his Vietnam War heroism, he faces questions about his agenda for the country. He would expand government programs and create new ones, yet he has hinged funding them on tax increases. Increasingly, Bush partisans are dogging Kerry at his events with signs like one in Oregon this month, deriding "these lying, crying liberals," while he insists he does not stand for any one ideology.

"Kerry's trying to bat right and throw left, and still look consistent because people criticize him as inconsistent," said James Thurber, who heads the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. "He's trying so hard to appeal to swing voters in the middle, but his message has left many Americans unsure about what he stands for."

Mr. Kerry can hardly be blamed for the fact that his Great Society liberalism is anathema to the American people, but the Democratic Party must surely be blamed for their inability to modernize their agenda, as Bill Clinton proposed in 1992 and as Tony Blair has succeeded in doing in Britain.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 22, 2004 10:04 AM