The Dick Morris Commentary
Morris: This is an effort by the Democrats to roll the clock back to September 10th 2001, the day before September Eleventh. Because, in the last segment you mentioned that you saw the country polarized, but in a real sense there are two side-by-side consensuses. By about fifty to thirty, people think Bush is better on terror, and by about fifty to thirty, people think Kerry''s better on everything else. And, ultimately, the issue is, do we want a wartime or a peacetime president? And what Clinton tried to do, what I think Edwards will try to do, what Obama tried to do, is to all put terror into a little bit into a box -- it's there, a part of the landscape -- but there's also education and environment and health care and drug prices and crime and all of those other issues on which the Democrats like to feel that they're better. And in a sense what they're asking for is a return to normalcy. Because without normalcy, the Democrats are not going to win this election.
O'Reilly: Okay. Now. On individual performances, the one that's got the most.. uhm.. attention.. was Michael Moore versus Bill O'Reilly. The second one was Teresa Heinz Kerry. I mean, she looks like she's the lightning rod in this election right now.
M: Well, I think Kerry was nuts to put his wife on as the featured speaker on Tuesday night. She did a fine job. She gave a good speech. And she might even be a really good person. But she can't handle that level of scrutiny. She can't handle those kinda questions. She can release her income tax returns, every expenditure that foundation made, every staff member, Soros, I think is on, or Kenneth Lay was on the board. Uh, she's gonna have a hard time! And normally, attacks on a candidate's wife are kind of below the belt. But, when you put her on as your prime speaker on Tuesday night, something Hillary didn't do in '92, and Barbara Bush didn't do in '88, you're asking for it. And I think that Kerry made a big mistake. I don't know if he had any choice in that decision, but I think that now Teresa Heinz becomes a legitimate target.
O: It's inconceivable that he wouldn't have a choice. But remember, Laura Bush, who will be on this broadcast next Tuesday, alright, gave a great speech, um, in the Republican convention of 2000. I remember standing being there just stunned. And I think that Teresa wanted the spotlight, and she looked like she wanted it. But I disagree with you about the effectiveness of the speech -- I didn't know what she was talking about. What did you take away from that?
M: Well I don't think that that'll play on Main Street real well. And I think the main thing that comes through to us is her 'other'ness. But, you know, Laura Bush gave a very crafted speech on education, which was really cool.
O: It was good.
M: But I think that, and when I say 'Kerry didn't have a choice,' I don't mean from the Democratic party, I meant 'within the Kerry household.' And I think that he had to put her on, and I think he made a big mistake in letting her become a legitimate target by giving her the prime spot on Tuesday night.
O: You know, it's more about her, though, that what she said.. and I think that, because people are bored here, generally speaking, that anybody like Teresa Heinz Kerry who's unpredictable, because she's the only one that is, is gonna draw that kind of attention.
Now. John Edwards speaks tonight, and he's a very, very polished guy, what do you expect?
M: Well, he's going to really try, as I said, to roll the clock back to pre-911 days. Where outsourcing of jobs and wages, and benefits, and the accidents, and health care, and prescription drugs, and those issues become he dominant issues. Because the Democratic party has got to try to minimize the terror issue, the Iraq issue, the homeland security issue. Because on those issues, Bush just has too large a lead. And I think that Kerry, Clinton and Edwards are all pushing the same theme, which is, this is not a war. Vote for the peacetime president. Terror isn't something in your daily life.
O: Alright. We have only thirty seconds so you're going to have to wrap it up for us, but, Kerry is using every opportunity (as Terry McAuliffe just told us) to emphasize his war record. Go ahead.
M: Big mistake. Ah, voters no more want a lieutenant as their president than they want a firefighter as their president. They admire that he was a good firefighter. They admire that he was a good lieutenant. What they want is a general and a leader.
O: We appreciate it.
M: Thank you.
"we?" "a wartime or a peacetime president?" as in, pick one?
Your comment applies to the attempted sprucing up of old ideas in the hands / voice of John Edwards. The power is back on here in the mountains, and my write-up of the final speeches, including Edwards, are below.
John / Billybob
• Retired Lt. General Claudia Kennedy ... missed this woman who make sexual harrassment charges against another general, but the charges were dismissed ...
• Retired General John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ... once other options are exhausted, you do not go to war without a plan to secure the peace ... (ANYONE who has read the history of WW II knows this statement is impossible, and therefore a lie. No one from Truman to McArthur and Eisenhower, to any of the troops in the field knew more than a year after that war was over, how the folloiwing peace would be carried out. This is a very popular, but very stupid, statement.) ... he did so with bravery and great distinction ... (HE OBVIOUSLY has not read Kerry's evaluations from Vietnam. No one with evaluations that bad would have been promoted above lieutenant.)
• Cate Edwards -- Jackie Kennedy styling of clothes and hair, probably not an accident .... adequate job of introducing her mother ...
• Elizabeth Edwards -- comes out to the tune, "not just a pretty face" ... says that John Kerry, like her father, has the right stuff ... mentions his church and prayer groups ... now into "fighting for people who cannot fight for themselves", as if making tens of millions of dollars were a chore rather than a benefit ... married him because he was the single most optimistic man I have ever known ... leaders who allow our faith and moral core to bring us together, rather than divide us ...
[BEST GENERAL COMMENT about the Edwards speech was made by a friend on the Internet: "Don't know their Plan ... it's a SECRET ... but every speaker talks about it. Their secret plan will cure the common cold, make us energy independent and put us all in one big public school district."]
Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Now you know why Elizabeth is so amazing, right? I am such a lucky man, to have the love of my life at my side, both of us have been blessed with four extraordinary children, wade, kate, who you heard from, Emma, Clair and Jack.
We are having such an extraordinary time. Myself and my entire family, at this convention. And by the way, how great was Teresa Heinz Kerry last night? My father and mother, Wallace and Bobby Edwards are also here tonight. You taught me the values that I carry in my heart -- faith, family, responsibility, opportunity for everybody. You taught me that there's dignity and honor in a hard day's work. You taught me to always look out for our neighbors, to never look down on anybody, and treat everybody with respect. Those are the values that John Kerry and I believe in, and nothing makes me prouder than standing with him in this campaign. I am so humbled to be your candidate for vice president of the united states. I want to talk [Cheers and applause]
>> I want to talk about our next president. For those who want to know what kind of leader he will be, I want to take you back about 30 years, when John Kerry graduated from college, he volunteered for military service. He volunteered to go to vietnam. [FOR the Navy, when it was clear the Army would draft him] ....
He volunteered to serve on a Swift Boat, one of the most dangerous duties that you can have. [Volunteered BEFORE the boats were changed from coastal to river duty] .... As a result he was wounded, honored for his valor. If you have any questions about what he is made of, just spent three minutes with the men that served with him then and stand with him now. [ONLY two of them "stand with him now," 12 of them declare him "unfit for service"] ... They saw up close what he was made up of. They saw him reach into the river and pull one of his men to safety and save his life. They saw him in the heat of battle make a decision in a split second to turn his boat around, drive it through an enemy position, and chase down the enemy to save his crew. [WRONG TACTIC to beach a Swift Boat and leave the boat.] Decisive. Strong.
Is this not what we need in a commander in chief? You know, we hear a lot of talk about values. Where I come from, you don't judge somebody's values based based on how they use that word in a political ad. You judge their values based on what they spent their life doing. So when a man volunteers to serve his country, the man volunteers and puts his life on the line for others, that's a man who represents real american values. [HOW ABOUT accusing all the Vietnam soldiers of war crimes" Is that an "American value"?] ...
This is a man who is prepared to keep the American people safe, to make america stronger at home and more respected in the world. John is a man who knows the difference between right and wrong. He wants to serve you. Your cause is his cause. That is why we must and we will elect him the next president of the united states. You know, for the last few months, john has been traveling around the country talking about his positive opt optimistic vision for america, talking about his plan to move this country in the right direction. What have we seen, relentless negative attacks against John. So in the weeks ahead, we know what is coming, don't we? More negative attacks. Aren't you sick of it? [IF THE truth about a man is a negative fact, then this statement becomes a LIE also.]
Yeah! [From audience.]
They are doing all they can to take the campaign for the highest office in the land down the lowest possible road. But this is where you come in. Between now and november you, the American people, you can reject this tired old hateful negative politics of the past. And instead, you can embrace the politics of hope, the politics of what is possible, because this is america, where everything is possible.
I am here tonight for a very simple reason -- because I love my country. And I have every reason to love my country. I have grown up in the bright lights of America. I grew up in a small turn in rural North Carolina, a place called Robbins. My father, he worked in a mill all his life. [NOTICE how he phrases this to cover the LIE that his father was a "mill worker" rather than a "mill supervisor."] ... And I still remember vividly the men and women that worked in the mill with him. I can see them. Some of them had grease on their faces and lent in their hair and they worked hard. They tried to put a little money away so their kids and grandkids could have a better life. They're just like the auto workers, the office workers, the teachers and the shop keepers on main streets all across this country. My mother had a number of jobs. She worked at the post office so she and my father could have health care. She owned her own small business. She refinished furniture to help pay for my education. I have had such incredible opportunities. I was blessed to be the first person in my family to be able to go to college. I worked my way through. And I had opportunities beyond my wildest dreams. And the heart of this campaign, your campaign, our campaign, is to make sure all Americans have exactly the same kind of opportunities that I had, no matter where you live, no matter who your family is, no matter what the color of your skin. This is the America that we believe in.
I have spent my life fighting for the kind of people that I grew up with. For two decades, I stood with kids and families against big H.M.O.'S and big insurance companies. When I got to the Senate, I fought those same fights against the Washington lobbyists [DOES HE think that people don't know that trial lawyers are one of the nations most powerful lobbies, and that Edwards has already had to return subtantial amounts of apparently illegal donations from them?] ,,, and because of the patient's bill of rights, I stand here tonight ready to work with you and John to make America stronger. And we have much work to do. Because the truth is, we still live in a country where there are two different Americas. One for all those people who have lived the American dream and don't have to worry. And another for most Americans, everybody else, who struggle to make ends meet every single day.
It doesn't have to be that way. We can build one America. We can build one America where we no longer have two health care systems, one for families that get the best health care money can buy and then one for everybody else rationed out by insurance companies, drug companies, hmo's, millions of americans have no health coverage at all. It doesn't have to be that way. [NO MENTION, of course, of tort reform to reduce the effects of lawyers like Edwards who drive up the costs of everyone's health care, and in some instances, drive doctors out of the profession entirely and deny such care as obstetrics -- Edwards' favorite type of defendants.]
We have a plan. We have a plan that will offer all americans the same health care that your Senator has. [HAS anyone taken a look at the cushy medical care for Congress? The nation cannot possibly provide that for everybody.] ... We can give you tax brakes to help you pay for your health care. And when we're in office, we will sign a real patients bill of rights into law so you can make your own health care decisions.
We shouldn't have two public school systems this country, one for the most affluent communities and one for everybody else. None of us believe that the quality of a child's education should be controlled by where they live or the influence of the community they live in. It doesn't have to be that way. We can build one school system that works for all of our kids, gives them a chance to do what they're capable of doing. [NO MENTION of course of vouchers and other means of providing better education OUTSIDE failed public schools.] ... Our plan will reform our schools and raise standards. We can give our schools the resources that they need. We can provide incentives to put our best teachers in the subjects and the places where we need them the most, and we can ensure that 3 million children have a safe place to go when they leave school in the afternoon. We can do this together, you and I. John kerry and i believe we shouldn't have two different economies in this country. One for people who are set for life, they know their kids and grandkids will be fine. And one for most americans, people would live, paychecks, to paychecks. You don't need me to explain this to you, do you? You know exactly what I'm talking about. You can't save any money, can you?
No.
It takes every time you -- every dime you make just to pay your bills. You know what happens if you have something that goes wrong, you have a child that gets sick or a layoff or crises in the family and you go right off the cliff. When that happens, what's the first thing that goes? Your dreams. It doesn't have to be that way. We can lift up your family and strength enyour family. Your agenda is our agenda.
Let me give you specifics. First, we can create good-paying jobs in this country again. We're going to get rid of tax cuts for companies who are outsourcing your jobs. And instead we're going to give tax brakes to American companies that are keeping jobs right here in America. And we will invest in the jobs of the future and the technologies and innovation to ensure that america stays ahead of the competition. [THESE ARE NOT SPECIFICS.] ... We're going to do this because john and i understand that a job is about more than a paycheck. It's about dignity and self respect. Hard work should be valued in this country. So we're going to reward work, not just wealth. We don't want people to just get by. We want people to get ahead.
So let me give you some specifics about what we're going to do. First, we're going to help you pay for your health care by having a tax break in health care reform that can save you up to a thousand dollars on your premiums. We are going to help you cover the rising cost of child care with a tax credit of up to a thousand dollars so that your kids have a place to go when you're at work that they're safe and well taken care of. If your child wants to be the first in your family to go to college, we're going to give you a tax break on up to four thousand dollars in tuition. And everyone and everybody listening here and at home is thinking one thing right now, ok?
How are you going to pay for it, right? Let me tell you how we're going to pay for it. I want to to be clear about this. We are going to keep and protect the tax cuts for 98% of Americans. 98%. We're going to roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and we're going to close corporate loopholes and we're going to cut government contractors and wasteful spending and we can move this country forward without taxing the burden to our children and our grandchildren. We can also do something about 35 million Americans who live in poverty every day. [FALSE MATH, this won't feed the bulldog.]
Here is why we shouldn't just talk about but do something about the millions of Americans who live in poverty. Because it is wrong. And we have a moral responsibility to lift those families up. I mean, the very idea that in a country of our wealth and our prosperity, we have children going to bed hungry. We have children that don't have the clothes to keep them warm. We have millions of Americans who work full time every day to support their families working for minimum wage and still live in poverty. It's wrong.
These are men and women who are living up to their bargain. They're working hard and supporting their families. Their families are doing their part. It's time we did our part. And that's what we're going to do when John is in the white house. Because we're going to raise the minimum wage. We're going to finish the job on welfare reform and we're going to bring good-paying jobs to the places where we need them the most. And by doing all of those things, we're going to say "no forever to any american working full time and living in poverty," not in our America, not in our America, not in our America. [BE GENERAL, TALK FAST, you'll be sitting down receaiving applause before anyone checks the particulars.]
And let me talk about why we need to build one America. Because I, like many of you, I saw up close what having two Americas can do to our country. From the time I was very young, I saw the ugly face of segregation and discrimination. I saw young African-American kids being sent upstairs in movie theaters. I saw "white-only" signs on restaurant doors and luncheon counters. [IS HE too young to have seen this, like Clinton's lies of seeing churches burned?] ... I feel sufficient an enormous personal responsibility when it comes to issues of race and equality and civil rights, and I have heard some discussions and debates around America about where, and in front of what audiences we ought to talk about race and equality and civil rights. I have an answer to that question. Everywhere. Everywhere. Every where. This is not an African-American issue. This is not a Latino issue. This is not an Asian-American issue. This is an american issue. It is about who we are, what our values are and what kind of country we live in.
The truth is, that what John and I want, what all of us want, is for our children, our grandchildren to be the first generations that grow up in America no longer divided by race. We must build one america. We must be one America, strong and united for another very important reason. Because we are at war. None of us will ever forget where we were on September 11. We all share the same terrible images, the towers falling in New York, the Pentagon in flames, smoldering field in Pennsylvania. We share a profound sadness for the nearly 3,000 lives that were lost. As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know that we have to do more to fight the war on terrorism and keep the American people safe. [DOESN'T mention is lousy attendance record on that Committee, nearly as bad as his and Kerry's general attendance in the Senate.] ... We can do that. We're approaching the third anniversary of September 11. One thing I can tell you, when we're in office, it won't take three years to get the reforms in place to keep the people safe. We will do whatever it takes as long as it takes to make sure this never happens again in our America. [WARS are never fought instantaniously, but over years. And NO ONE can guarantee perfect results.]
When John is president, we will listen to the wisdom of the september 11 commission. We will lead strong alliances. We will safeguard and secure our weapons of mass destruction. We will strengthen our homeland security, product our ports, protect our chemical plants and support our firefighters, police officers, E.M.T.'S. We will always use our military might to keep the American people safe.
And we, John and I, will have one clear unmistakeable message for Al Qaeda and these terrorists -- you cannot run, you cannot hide, we will destroy you. [DID THE audience note that this line was taken from George Bush, and he took it from Ronald Reagan?] ... John understands personally about fighting in a war. And he knows what our brave men and women are going through in another war, the war in iraq. The human costs and the extraordinary heroism of this war, it surrounds us, in our cities and our towns. We will win this war because of the strength or courage of our own people.
Some of our friends and neighbors, they saw their last images in baghdad. Some took their last steps outside of falujah. Some buttoned their uniform for the last time before they went out and saved their unit. Men and women who used to take care of themselves, they now count on others to see them through the day. They need their mother to tie their shoe, their husband to brush their hair, their wife's arm to help them across the room. The stars and stripes wave for them. The word "hero" was made for them. They're the best and the bravest and they will never be left behind. [LONG APPLAUSE, but what about the soldiers and vets that Kerry called "war criminals"? Were they "left behind" in any way?]
You, you, you understand that. And they deserve a president who understands this and understands it on the most personal level, what they have gone through, what they have given and given up for their country, for us. For us, the real test of patriotism is how we treat the men and women who have put their lives on the line to product our values. Let me tell you, the 26 million veterans in this country will not have to wonder when they're in office, when we're in office, whether they will have health care next week or next year. We will take care of them because they have taken care of us.
But today our great United States military is stretched thin. We have more than 140,000 troops in Iraq, almost 20,000 in Afghanistan. I have visited the men and women there and we're praying that they try to give that country hope. Like all those brave men and women, John put his life on the line for the country. He knows when authority is given to a president, much is expected in return. That's why we will strengthen andize our military and double our special forces and invest in the new equipment and special forces so our military is the best equipped and best in the world. [BUT HE and Kerry were two of the 12 Senators who voted AGAINST such equipment for those soldiers.] ... This will make our military stronger and make sure that we can defeat any enemy in this new world. But we can't do this alone.
We have got to restore our respect in the world to bring our allies to us and with us. It is how we won the Cold War. [LIE, we won the Cold War by struggling past the objections of "allies" like France and Germany. The "we" is also a lie. President Reagan costed the USSR into quitting over the opposition of the Democrats in Congress.] ... It is how we won two World Wars, [DOES HE have the slightest clue that we had about a third the allies in each of those wars than we have NOW?] ... and it is how we will build a stable Iraq. [HASN'T he ever heard of the Marshall Plan? America nearly single-handedly rebuilt both Europe and Japan.]
With a new president who strengthens and leads our alliances we can get Nato to help secure Iraq. [NO EXPLANATION of how our bought and paid for allies like France and Germany will be brought into the fold.] ... And make sure Iraq's neighbors like Syria and Iran don't stand in the way of a democratic Iraq. We can help Iraq's economy by getting other countries to forgive their enormous debt and participate in the reconstruction. [NO RECOGNITION that special envoy James Baker has been doing exactly this for two years, and that Kerry and Edwards opposed this, originally.] ... We can do this for the Iraqi people and do it for our own soldiers and we will get this done right.
A new president will bring the world to our side. And with it, a stable Iraq, a real chance for freedom and peace in the Middle East, including a safe and secure Israel. And John and I will bring the world together, John and I will bring the world together to face the most dangerous threat we have, the possibility of authorities getting their hands on a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon. [NO MENTION that Bush has done exactly that concerning Libya, and that major nations like China stand square in the path of doing this with North Korea. He is stating empty slogans, no more.]
With our credibility restored, we can work with other nations to secure stockpiles of the world's most dangerous weapons and safeguard this extraordinarily dangerous material. [WE HAVE been doing this for years with Russia and other national remnants of the former USSR.] ... We can finish the job and secure the loose nukes in Russia. We can close the loophole in the nuclear nonproliferation treaty that allows rogue nations the ability to build these weapons. That's how we can address the new threats we face. [TREATIES without at least the possibility of compulsion are totally worthless. Didn't he ever read Teddy Roosevelt's definition of successful diplomacy, "Speak softly and carry a big stick."] ... That's how we can keep you safe and that's how we can restore America's respect around the world. [AND TELL us how much respect the world had for America at the end of Jimmy Carter's Presidency.]
And together we will ensure that the image of America, the image all of us love, America, this great shining light, this beacon of freedom, democracy and human rights that the world looks up to is always lit! [WOW, that image sounds like "a shining city on a hill" which comes from the Bible, and was applied to colonial America by the likes of Cotton Mather, and to modern America by President Reagan, repeatedly. Did Edwards not even know the sources of his statement? Did he know it, but conceal it?] ... And the truth is that every child, every family in America will be safer and more secure if they grow up in a world where America is once again looked up to and respected. That is the world that we can create together.
Tonight, as we celebrate in this hall, somewhere in America, a mother sits at her kitchen table she can't sleep because she is worried. She can't pay her bills. She is working hard, trying to pay her rent, trying to feed her kids but she just can't catch up. Didn't used to be that way in her house. Her husband was called up in the Guard. Now he has been in Iraq over a year. They thought he was going to come home last month but now he has to stay longer. She thinks he is alone. But tonight, in this hall and in your homes, you know what? She's got a lot of friends. [IS HE totally unaware that in the "greatest generation" the soldiers went to Europe or the Pacific FOR THE DURATION which meant as much as four years? Is he unaware of the various forms of help the military provide to their own?]
We want her to know that we hear it is time to bring opportunity and an equal chance to her door. We're here to make America stronger at heem so that she can get ahead. And we're here to make America respected in the world again so we can bring him home. And American soldiers don't have to fight this war in Iraq or this war on terrorism alone. So when you return home some night, you might pass a mother on her way to work the late shift. You tell her, "hope is on the way." When your brother calls and says he is spending his entire life at the office and he still can't get ahead, you tell him, "hope is on the way". [DID HE, perhaps, borrow Dick Cheney's refrain at the 2000 Republican Convention, "Help is on the way"?]
When your parents call and tell you their medicine's going through the roof and they can't keep up, you tell them, "hope is on the way." And when your neighbor calls and said her daughter has worked hard and she wants to go to college, you tell her, "hope is on the way." And when your son or daughter who is serving this country heroicly in Iraq calls, you tell them "hope is on the way." When you wake up and you're sitting at the kitchen table with your kids and you are talking about the great possibilities in America, your kids should know that John and I believe to our core that tomorrow can be better than today. [DIDN'T HE listen to Obama's speech just yesterday when he spoke of his education and success in life that had already occurred, my story could only occur in the nation?]
Like all of us, I have learned a lot of lessons in my life. Two of the most important are, first, there will always be heartache and struggle. We can't make it go away. But the second is that people of good and strong will can make a difference. One is a sad lesson. The other is inspiring. We are Americans and we choose to be inspired. We choose hope over despair, possibilities over problems, optimism over cynicism.
We choose to do what is right, even when those around us say you can't do that. We choose to be inspired because we know we can do better, because this is America, where everything is still possible. What we believe, what John kerry and I believe, that we should never look down on anybody. [POP QUIZ: what groups in American society does this very speech "look down upon"?] ...We ought to lift people up. We don't believe in tearing people apart. We believe in bringing them together.
What we believe, what I believe, is that the family you're born into and the color of your skin, in our America, should never control your destiny. Join us in this cause. Let's make America stronger at home and more respected in the world. Let's ensure that, once again, in our one America, our one America, tomorrow will always be better than today. Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America. Thank you.
