Kerry's Nomination Acceptance Speech

[akamifeldman]

Well, I thought it was very good, covered nearly everything I wanted to hear. Memorable quotes (for me):
"I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty."
"I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war. I will have a Vice President who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a Secretary of Defense who will listen to the best advice of our military leaders. And I will appoint an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution of the United States."
"I don't wear my own faith on my sleeve."
"I don't want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side.
"What if we have a president who believes in science, so we can unleash the wonders of discovery like stem cell research to treat illness and save millions of lives?"


Of course, here's the complete text for those that haven't caught it yet:

I'm John Kerry, and I approved this message...

No one wants to read the whole freakin' speech. Don't clog up the board...


<<<Comment if you will, but if u get nasty, it'll end up in the "War Zone" Forum again, and we all know what that means..>>

 

[Jolly Roger]

Yawn....

Wake me up when the debates get here.

 

[spr]

His national security/defense claims will have a tough time in regards to his past actions/votes (Come on voting against body armor for our troops but saying we will have the latest in military technology). Religion on his sleeve..." oldest commandments...' Honor thy father and thy mother'" sounds like a quote fromt the old Bible to me, Uh Oh. He still just seems to be saying what the people want to hear (like all politicians). I sure hope he has got the balls that it takes underneath that skirt if he actually gets elected...God forbid. I also still believe his service is quite shady, but the truth...who knows (Where is the rest of that unit that he had command over?). Just a few of my uneasy feelings...few.

 

[PropStop]

you know why everyone remembers the Gettysberg Address? Because it's freakin' short!

 

[46Driver]

His national security/defense claims will have a tough time in regards to his past actions/votes (Come on voting against body armor for our troops but saying we will have the latest in military technology). Religion on his sleeve..." oldest commandments...' Honor thy father and thy mother'" sounds like a quote fromt the old Bible to me, Uh Oh. He still just seems to be saying what the people want to hear (like all politicians). I sure hope he has got the balls that it takes underneath that skirt if he actually gets elected...God forbid. I also still believe his service is quite shady, but the truth...who knows (Where is the rest of that unit that he had command over?). Just a few of my uneasy feelings...few.

Show me the exact vote where he said no body armor - and there were no multi-billion pork barrell riders attached to it - and you might have a case.

 

[VetteMuscle427]

I'm sorry akamifeldman. I see his lips moving, but all I hear is "blah blah blah. I'm a dirty politician selling BS to the public"

 

[Cate]

All politicians are dirty. They're politicians.

 

[virtu050]

he talked a lot about his past... talked a lot about the future.. but didn't say much about his senate career.. i wonder why he skipped over the last 20+ years of his life...

 

[spr]

46,
Didn't quite understand the "multi billion dollar " comment...over my head, but Kerry voted against it with one vote against the " 87 billion " actually its 86.5 but big difference I'll take whats left over. These are quotes from two different websites...factcheck.org and issues2000.org. Bush is said to have sent the reservists w/o the best in body armor so this is how he planned on getting it to them. Kerry axed it as well as the other 86.2 billion.


Nevertheless, the bill Kerry opposed did contain $300 million requested by the Pentagon to buy best-grade body armor for all troops in Iraq, and also contained additional combat pay and health benefits for reservists called to active duty


Vote to pass a bill that would appropriate $86.5 billion in supplemental spending for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Fiscal 2004. The bill would provide $10.3 billion as a grant to rebuild Iraq. This includes:
$5.1 billion for security
$5.2 billion for reconstruction costs
$65.6 billion for military operations and maintenance
$1.3 billion for veterans medical care
$10 billion as a loan that would be converted to a grant if 90% of all bilateral debt incurred by the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, would have to be forgiven by other countries.

 

[Cate]

46Driver was asking about pork-barrell spending, which is basically pointless add-ons that politicians bring in that usually only benefit their own constituents, i.e. an unnecessary weapon that's only built in the pol's home district. They add up to a huge waste of money, but they usually get left on because it's easier to pass the entire bill than to pick off the pork.

In this case, though, I think Kerry's objections were because of funding issues. He supported the $87 billion for the troops, but he recognized that, at the time, we were running a budget deficit of over $125 billion and couldn't afford it without some changes - he wanted Bush to stall his tax cuts to fund the $87 billion with tax revenues, and Bush didn't want to.

 

[jarhead]

Well, I thought it was very good, covered nearly everything I wanted to hear. ...

no sh1t ... politicians get elected by telling people what they want to hear ...

they all speak bullsh1t, both sides of the aisle, yet people buy into their rhetoric & the spin they put on reality ...

S/F

 

[spr]

I'm not much on the politics but it just seems to me that deficit takes a back seat to safety of our troops and proper funding for a war. Take the money from some of the welfare programs or something...those people should be working anyway. (joking...kinda) But for real his priorities seem off on that one from what you are saying Cate.
Sorry just a simpleton's view.

 

[zilber]

He totally sold out when he got back from Vietnam... but is waving his military service like a flag... hippocrit. Anyone that votes for him isn't seeing the big picture...

He did not sell out. He was saying that the politicians were wrong for sending them to war. He was against the war, not against his troops... There is a difference. We would be lucky to have him as the next President.

 

[46Driver]

46Driver was asking about pork-barrell spending, which is basically pointless add-ons that politicians bring in that usually only benefit their own constituents, i.e. an unnecessary weapon that's only built in the pol's home district. They add up to a huge waste of money, but they usually get left on because it's easier to pass the entire bill than to pick off the pork.

In this case, though, I think Kerry's objections were because of funding issues. He supported the $87 billion for the troops, but he recognized that, at the time, we were running a budget deficit of over $125 billion and couldn't afford it without some changes - he wanted Bush to stall his tax cuts to fund the $87 billion with tax revenues, and Bush didn't want to.

Exactly. Actually, Kerry has been hammering Bush over the fact the Pentagon did not have enough body armor or uparmored Humvees. And Im sure if a vote came up for a $300M supplemental for JUST body armor, it would probably get passed without a single NO vote in the House or the Senate. However, it was probably just one of thousands of items, many of them billions of dollars of pork, that was in the bill and a Kerry (or a fiscal conservative) might want to vote against the whole bill.

 

[penderwt]

Did anyone find the salute, then the "I'm John Kerry, reporting for duty, blah blah, blah.." to be a mockery of the military. incredibly cheesy...he was so obviously using america's love for america's military to create some kind of, i don't know, patriotic feel to his speech. My goodness, i felt bad for him, the way he was trying sooo hard to be charismatic, but it just wasn't happenin'... the thing is, i'm definately not a kerry fan at all...but his forced attempt at charisma made me feel bad for him. kinda like the proverbial bug being flushed down the toilet. "come on, little guy, you can do it...aw, hell, who am i kidding, no you can't.."