Kerry faces PR fight over foreign policy

Boston Globe ^ | April 26, 2004 | Farah Stockman

[Kaslin]

WASHINGTON -- If elected president, John F. Kerry would move to increase the US military by 40,000 troops. He would send more soldiers to Iraq if commanders said they were needed. He would stay in Iraq as long as it took to get the job done.

Those are the policies that Kerry's inner circle of foreign policy advisers must work with every Monday at lunchtime when they meet to discuss ways to take the Democratic candidate's ideas to the American public.

Their main goal: ''To show that we can protect America better than George Bush," said Rand Beers, Kerry's chief national security adviser.

In a presidential race dominated by national security issues, Kerry's success may hinge on whether voters are convinced that his ability to forge ties with allies can make America safer than President Bush's more unilateral approach. Lately, the differences between the candidates have sometimes been hard to detect.

But in public opinion surveys, Bush trumps the Massachusetts senator on those issues. A USA Today/ CNN/ Gallup poll released last week indicated that 41 percent of respondents said they thought ''only Bush" would do a good job handling terrorism, while 20 percent said ''only Kerry" would. On the situation in Iraq, 40 percent indicated ''only Bush," while 26 percent indicated Kerry. Those numbers come in one of the most troublesome news cycles for the Bush administration, as the Sept. 11 commission hearings and the rising violence in Iraq have raised questions about Bush's conduct on both issues.

The poll numbers also come as Bush and Kerry have increasingly echoed each other's statements on foreign policy, complicating Kerry's struggle to distinguish himself in voters' minds and maintain the support of antiwar Democrats.

[Kaslin]

I haven't seen this posted yet

[Always Right]

I see the Boston Globe is part of the vast right-wing conspiracy.

[Kaslin]

The liberals will probably see it as that

[Always Right]

The liberals will probably see it as that

Oh they already have. CNN and ABC are right-wing whores for having a story about Kerry's numerous opposing stories concerning his medals. And gee, the right-wing whore media reported there were only 250,000 pro-abortion at the March, when it was so obvious there was way over a million. Oh the VRWC just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Rush is just a peon, the big guns are now involved.

[Ditto]

He would stay in Iraq as long as it took to get the job done.

I wonder how that's playing in the fever swamp over at DU?

[Diogenesis]

Want to know the foreign "leader" wanting Kerry?

BREAKING:

"After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, (Kerry)
conducted a ''listening tour" of the Middle East, meeting with ..
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his compound in the West Bank."
Kerry faces PR fight over foreign policy