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My preferred candidate is John Kerry. Howard Dean is clearly the presumptive front-runner in the polls, in money and in the power of his campaign organization. I harbor no ill-will towards Governor Dean. However, I believe John Kerry is far better candidate to lead the party against George Bush.
I believe the grass-roots progressive organizations that power the Dean campaign would have a far better chance of defeating Bush and transforming the nation if they rallied around Kerry as the best President for the nation, rather that Dean, the best campaigner for the nomination.
I provide below for comment and criticism my biased, but considered head-to-head comparison between Kerry and Dean on four major dimensions: (1) personal character; (2) Iraq and National Security; (3) Progressive Record; and (4) Open Government.
Personal Character
John Kerry answered his nation’s call and enlisted to fight and lead men in a dubious war in Vietnam rather than let someone else die in his place. The nation gave him the Silver Star, Bronze Star and 3 Purple Hearts for his bravery, service and sacrifice.
John Kerry followed his tour of military duty with a life of service, working to end the War in which he fought and leading a thank-less multi-decade effort to expose corruption in U.S. foreign policy, championing the environment, and pinch-hitting in the Senate for almost every cause that affected the lives of the poor and disenfranchised.
Howard Dean heard the call to Vietnam service and produced X-rays and a letter from his Doctor. The nation gave him a bad-back deferment and 1 year vacation on the ski-slopes of Aspen.
Like George W. Bush’s Vietnam Draft-Dodge into the Texas Air National Guard when he was “young and irresponsible,” Dr. Dean’s youthful maneuver memorializes the most shameful aspect of class and privilege in America – that the moneyed class can avoid their responsibilities and gain special advantages, yet end-up being celebrated for their success in life.
Dean’s life story shows a wonderful commitment to public service, but provides little evidence of personal sacrifice
Iraq War and National Security
John Kerry voted for the Iraq war resolution because he believed it was the only way to force resolution of the Iraq tragedy by restarting the U.N. inspection process. He believed the President of the United States (and since regretted it) when he said that war would be “a last resort”. At the time of the vote, he gave a substantial, thoughtful speech on the Senate floor, Kerry said he would strongly opposed any unilateral movement to war and that he did not believe that Saddam’s threat was yet imminent. He kept is word and led opposition during the U.N. debates against Bush’s “rush to war,” inept foreign policy.
John Kerry’s military service, his two decades of participation in international diplomacy as a leader in the Senate and as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, allows him challenge George Bush’s conduct of war and foreign policy in a post 9/11 world and prepares him to quickly re-direct U.S. policy upon being sworn into office.
Howard Dean opposed the Iraq war because he believed that it was the only way to get his campaign off the ground. Prior to a campaign strategy decision, Dean is reported as making varied and ambiguous statements on the Iraq question, many of which were similar to other Democratic candidates. Dean’s own campaign staff described this newly discovered anti-war sentiment as a political maneuver to capture the “activist” movement and make up for the fact that Dean has the same foreign policy experience as governor George W. Bush prior to his election, that is, NONE. It is widely reported that he depends entirely on advisors for policy direction.
While an eloquent and potent critic of Mr. Bush, Dean’s statements on what he would have done instead and how he will deal with Iraq as president have been, to-date vague and incoherent. Dr. Dean’s fails the test of Credibility as Commander-In-Chief of the United States Armed forces. This is a MANDATORY requirement for a campaign against a SITTING PRESIDENT and a MAJORITY PARTY at war.
Howard Dean has not yet read the book on fighting international terrorism. John Kerry wrote it.
Progressive Record
John Kerry gets the best scores from independent groups for his environmental record and for issues affecting the working poor. For thirty years Kerry has fought for labor rights, women’s rights and campaign finance reform. Kerry’s record is solid on education and social security. Despite significant political cost, Kerry has opposed capital punishment, the NRA and all the fat-cat special interest lobby groups camped out in Washington.
Few senators have maintained a record so widely regarded as above reproach. John Kerry’s legendary indifference to special interest initiatives has been widely slammed as arrogance, aloofness and neglect of his “constituents.”
Howard Dean gets his best scores from the NRA. While Dr. Dean is often characterized as an “angry liberal,” he has admitted that he is “no liberal.” Dr Dean’s current positions are difficult to pin down, but appear to be at odds with his record and certainly his reputation as governor of Vermont.
His record as governor has been characterized as “Rockefeller Republican”, and is decidedly mixed. Vermont voter say of their former governor “he never saw a welfare program he did not want to cut.” Through his tenure as governor Dean made major cuts in aid to education, retirement funds for teachers and state employees, health care, Medicaid benefits, and welfare programs earmarked for the aged, blind and disabled, all under the cloak of “fiscal responsibility”. At the same time, Dean presided over the highest tax rate in the state.
Now Howard Dean campaigns on a simplistic call for rolling back all of the tax cuts enacted since Bush took office, a position that is not only inconsistent with his priorities as governor, but contrary liberal policy that would focus on progressive taxation (increasing taxes on the rich and reducing them on the poor).
Open Government
John Kerry has fought to expose covert government actions in South-East Asian and Nicaragua, for public disclosure of campaign financing and for the freedom of Information in the Nation’s capital.
Kerry has himself been a principal target of secret investigations carried out by the Nixon Administration in the 70's when Kerry lead the anti-war effort.
Kerry’s record of pubic service as a prosecutor, in State Government and as a senator is open to public scrutiny. Kerry made his private letters and notes written during his service in Vietnam available for examination by the historian Douglas Brinkley.
Dean has fought to keep his Vermont records secret, and has now rejected Campaign fundraising and disclosure rules. He refuses to disclose whether he is abiding by state primary spending limits. About the sealing of his Gubernatorial records, Dean said, “We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers.”
The former Governor's action to lock away his own gubernatorial records for an unprecedented 10 years has made a mockery of the Democratic call for disclosure of the records from Dick Cheney’s secret meetings, and of Democratic criticism of the administration’s love of secrecy. His effort to silence critics with a “Let a judge decide” disguises the reality that is one of the least expeditious ways to provide access to his records and the most certain method of delaying access for several months.
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Fellow DU member, I hope what I have written is taken as a serious effort at a tough-minded comparison. I encourage criticism and other efforts to FIND THE BEST MAN.
IT IS NOT TOO LATE.
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