“John Kerry for President” and “John Kerry:
The Real Deal 2004″ placards lined Haines 39 on Monday as
Kerry’s youngest daughter, Vanessa, spoke to students and
community members in support of her father’s presidential
bid.
As a John Kerry video montage signaled the start of the forum,
former presidential candidate and current UCLA public policy
professor Michael Dukakis shuffled in and took his seat front and
center.
Before beginning her speech, Kerry greeted Dukakis with a hug,
saying, “This is the man who used to comb my hair when I was
seven.” John Kerry served as lieutenant governor when Dukakis
was governor of Massachusetts in 1982.
Kerry, a third-year medical student at Harvard, said her drive
to improve health care in the United States played a role in her
decision to join her father’s campaign because she believes
he would fix many of the country’s long-standing problems.
She has traveled around the United States for the past four months
to speak on her father’s behalf.
Kerry spoke briefly of student loans, energy independence and
U.S. relations in the Middle East before taking more specific
questions from the audience.
“Having sat on the foreign relations committee for 20
years, (John Kerry) has relationships with leaders already. He
could stand at the well of the U.N. on day one of his presidency
and say … “˜I am willing to invest in
alliances,'” Kerry said.
She said the Bush administration has turned its back on
education, the environment and the poor in favor of special
interests and corporations.
“If there is any candidate in this field that can look
George Bush in the eye and say, “˜No way, no more, no
longer,’ it’s my father.”
John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, has been very public
about his anti-war stance. After returning from Vietnam, Kerry
co-founded Vietnam Veterans of America and became a spokesman for
Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
“My father didn’t think we were supposed to go to
war when we went to war, and he fought hard to keep us from going
to war,” Kerry said.
Kerry answered questions on a broad range of topics besides the
war.
When asked about gay marriage, Kerry said she had not spoken to
her father specifically about it, but she believed she knew his
position.
“My father is for civil unions and believes that we need
to have equal rights under law,” she said.
Speaking of civil liberties, Kerry said the Patriot Act
infringed on many civil liberties and needed to be considerably
altered if it is renewed.
Kerry said her father would fight against the outsourcing of
jobs and would offset some of the challenges associated with cheap
overseas labor by renewing investments in domestic sectors.
“Because of our economy, we’re never going to be
able to compete with some low-wage jobs in other areas of the
world,” Kerry said.
Kerry also touched on education, which was once a more prominent
topic in the presidential campaign but since has fallen off the
radar.
“My father believes we need to be fully funding education
““ Early Start … a lot of these young programs,” she
said, referring to the education policy Kerry enacted in 2000 which
expanded and coordinated different early childhood education
programs.
The audience asked Kerry about Ralph Nader, who announced Sunday
he will be running for president. Many Democrats fear the
independent’s campaign will take votes away from the
Democratic candidate in November.
Kerry said she believes there will be a backlash against
Nader’s campaign and he will not take away many Democratic
votes.
“The real desire to get President Bush out of office is
going to unite Democrats across the board in this election,”
she said.
Kerry said her father will not even consider a potential
vice-presidential running mate until the Democratic nomination is
locked up. Although her father is the front-runner for the
nomination, she said the Kerry campaign will not make any
assumptions.
As the forum drew to a close, Dukakis took the floor and praised
Kerry’s efforts. He called for everyone to take action in the
coming months to support their particular candidate.
Dukakis will be speaking Wednesday in Dodd Hall about the
efforts students can take during the election season.