SCOT LEHIGH
Democrats play up persuasionSO FAR, the Democratic National Convention has been a gathering to drive the ideologues to distraction. Since Howard Dean's candidacy collapsed, the Democrats' angry left wing has contented itself with the notion that Dean had breathed fire into a moribund party. And that he had proved that what was important was not courting swing voters but rather energizing the party's base. (No matter that, as consultant Bill Carrick quips, any more energy and the left might well have a collective heart attack.)
But with the nation watching on Monday night, John Kerry's convention showed a smarter side. With few exceptions, the rhetoric was not that of the thunderous denunciations favored by the livid left but rather an idiom that spoke to undecided voters. It was, in other words, an exercise in persuasion, not polemics. Tuesday, a non-network-televised night, was similarly measured. Ted Kennedy offered a crisp but careful critique of the Bush administration; Dick Gephardt was upbeat; and Dean, the former firebrand, was the very definition of mild-mannered. The big question mark of the important, impression-setting opening night was Al Gore, who has taken to delivering scathing anti-Bush broadsides. Not this time, however. Gore pitched his carefully modulated speech directly at Americans in the middle, asking a series of polite but pointed questions: Is the country more united today? Did people who voted for George W. Bush expect the largest deficits in history? Do the people who voted for Ralph Nader still believe there was no difference between the major-party candidates? But one could best see the change when the former vice president discussed the Iraq war, a subject on which he has, in other forums, accused Bush of betraying the country. "Regardless of your opinion at the beginning of this war, isn't it now abundantly obvious that the way this war has been managed by the administration has gotten us in very serious trouble?" he asked. His speech could have taken on off-putting "I told you so" tones, but Gore sounded modest and sincere. The result was his most effective performance in recent memory. The best proof of that? Obviously hoping for ideological excess, the GOP operatives in their convention war room told the Globe's Scott Greenberger that they were disappointed that Gore's speech had been relatively sedate. "I was hoping he'd show a little more anger," said research director Tim Griffin. "It's so entertaining to watch when the hair starts flopping." Bill Clinton is usually a master of the right pitch, and his Monday speech proved no exception. As Somerset Maugham observed, the rapier of sarcasm is far more lethal than the bludgeon of invective, and Clinton deftly wielded wit to critique the Bush administration's fiscal policies. Although the Republicans had been tough on him as president, he said, as a newly minted member of the wealthiest Americans he had been the recipient of a large tax cut. "I never thought I'd be so well cared for by the president," he joked. Both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton put the best shine on John Kerry, a nominee who, with a nuanced approach to the issues and a rhetorical style that too often tends toward reflexive sonority, remains an acquired taste. Kerry, Hillary Clinton said, "is a serious man for a serious job at a serious time." But the most effective line belonged to the former president, who countered any notion that Kerry and Edwards would be weak on terrorism, even as he argued that more than mere toughness was required. Predicting that opponents would say that Kerry won't stand up to terrorists, Clinton said: "Don't you believe it. Strength and wisdom are not competing values. They go hand in hand. And John Kerry has both." Huge applause ensued. The Kerry camp has to be pleased, so far -- but with the emphasis on the so far. It's now the candidate who must convince. John Marttila, a long-time Kerry adviser, said the campaign believes that people are ready to abandon the Republican incumbent if the challenger is judged an acceptable alternative on national security. Crossing that threshold "has been a problem for Democrats for the last generation," says Marttila. "But I believe John Kerry is the only candidate since John Kennedy who can make the Democrats fully competitive on the issue of national security." With three purple hearts, a silver and a bronze star, and long service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry has both the biography and the expertise. Tomorrow night, his challenge will be to stand and deliver.
Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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