Yepsen: Tough rhetoric peppers Kerry's acceptance speech

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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040730/OPINION01/407300358/1056/NEWS09

Yepsen: Tough rhetoric peppers Kerry's acceptance speech

By DAVID YEPSEN
REGISTER POLITICAL COLUMNIST
July 30, 2004
Boston, Mass. - John Kerry accepted the Democratic presidential nomination here Thursday night by giving the nation an uplifting acceptance speech that sought to inspire, chart a course for the next four years and minimize his political liabilities.

The 46-minute, prime-time address was a good one and should boost his poll numbers. It echoed the high-minded rhetoric of President John Kennedy, who has been one of Kerry's role models in life. But the speech also echoed the political positioning of President's Nixon and Eisenhower, who, as candidates, sought to win office in wartime by finessing the specifics for just how they'd end a conflict that's vexing the nation.

On the plus side, Kerry's speech touched on his own biography and the forces that molded him, something that's important for a candidate to do when he is still introducing himself to about a third of American voters who say they don't know much about him.

He also delivered some sharp criticisms of President Bush, something that was well-received by a convention that's been deliberately starved of such red-meat rhetoric from other speakers in the interest of presenting a positive image to the country.<snip>