The Strategy: Speakers...Make Effort to Follow...Rule on Positive Speeches

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The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > The Strategy: Speakers of All Stripes Make Effort to Follow Kerry's Rule on Positive Speeches

"BOSTON, July 25 - Al Gore will probably not be calling President Bush a "moral coward," as he did in a recent speech, when he addresses the Democratic convention on Monday night.

The Rev. Al Sharpton is not about to muse on whether Mr. Bush is a deliberate liar or only an accidental one, as he once did in a primary debate, when he speaks Wednesday night. And it is doubtful that former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont will be screaming about anything, let alone that Mr. Bush has "earned a one-way bus ticket to Crawford, Tex.," when he speaks to delegates in prime time on Tuesday.

No, the word has gone out from Senator John Kerry himself that speakers must accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. Gauzy testimonials to Mr. Kerry's principles, proposals and biography are in. Rants questioning Mr. Bush's veracity or military record, or denouncing his "creed of greed," in Mr. Kerry's phrase of a few months ago, are all very much out.

Asked who was screening the speeches at the convention to make sure they stayed positive, Stephanie Cutter, Mr. Kerry's spokesman, said they would be going through the same vetting process that conventions have used for decades in making sure that speakers were "comfortable" with being on stage.
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"This is all about independents," one party official said. "You're going into this convention with 45 percent on each side, and 10 percent with a big question mark over their heads."


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< http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/26/politics/campaign/26speeches.html >