Kerry changes stance, takes on Dean

New campaign tactic highlights differences between candidates

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff, 9/4/2003

The debate within the campaign of Senator John F. Kerry about how to deal with Howard Dean is over.

As he tries to reinvigorate his Democratic candidacy for the presidency, Kerry has made it clear he is not going to wait and see if Dean's surging campaign will fade. Since Sunday, the Massachusetts senator has criticized the former Vermont governor, who leads in the latest polls in New Hampshire, for his opposition to the Iraq war, lack of government experience in foreign policy, economic plans, and membership in the National Rifle Association.

The Dean campaign says the attacks are being driven by one fact: Kerry's loss of his front-runner status, which some media outlets ascribed to him earlier in the year.

"They ignored us for seven months; now they're attacking us," said Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager. "I don't think it's a surprise why. . . . They're doing this because things aren't going so well for their campaign. I'm sorry. That's not my problem."

As his campaign plane flew from Iowa to New Hampshire yesterday morning, Kerry told reporters, "Howard Dean's opposition to the war was wrong." Kerry argued that Saddam Hussein was a dangerous leader who needed to be confronted, just with more diplomacy than the Bush administration tried.

"You can't just walk away," Kerry said of Dean, whose candidacy gained lift earlier this year from his ardent antiwar rhetoric.

On Monday, Kerry took on Dean over domestic policy, questioning his economic plans. "Howard Dean said he's going to balance the budget in the first three years. Try it, and see what kind of pain is going to happen to the economy as a whole," the senator told reporters as his plane flew to South Carolina for his formal announcement speech.

Kicking off what is supposed to be his big week, Kerry also broke with his recent history and started criticizing Dean by name. "I think George Bush has proven that the presidency is not the place for on-the-job training in this new security world and foreign policy challenges," the senator said on Sunday during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press. "For governors, Howard Dean has zero experience in international affairs."

Kerry said in an interview that the formal declaration of his candidacy marked the appropriate time to begin highlighting distinctions between him and his eight current rivals for the Democratic nomination. The shift in tactics also appears to indicate a victory for hawkish members of Kerry's staff, who favored engaging Dean, over others who believed Kerry should continue at his pace in the hope that Dean's candidacy would sag.

The spate of criticisms preceded Kerry's return to New England after seeking votes in the South and Midwest on an announcement tour that started in South Carolina and moved to Iowa before it concluded in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, his political base. The final event was a rally last evening in Boston.

Faneuil Hall was festooned with bunting as Kerry took a stage that was filled with a cross-section of ages and races, as well as a phalanx of Massachusetts politicians, including Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Senate President Robert Travaglini, and House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran. In introducing Kerry, Senator Edward M. Kennedy tried to give heart to Red Sox fans, proclaiming, "Boston is going to be the world champion, and John Kerry is going to be our president."

Kerry's speech was a reprisal of his kickoff address on Tuesday in South Carolina, with the signature line, "With confidence in the courage of our people to change what is wrong and to do what is right, I come here to tell you that I am a candidate for president of the United States." The response from an audience estimated at 4,000 to 5,000 by Boston police was cheers and chants of "Kerry, Kerry."

The attacks on Dean also came just before Kerry's first campaign ads. The inaugural buy is in Iowa, with two commercials that began airing in six television markets. Kerry is expected to begin advertising as early as today in New Hampshire with images captured at last night's rally.

"Three million jobs lost, too many of them in the heartland," Kerry said in one of the commercials. "That is an astonishing failure. If I am president, I will roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy so we can invest in education, health care, and the skills of our workers."

Dean's surge appeared to be tied in part to the launch of his own campaign advertising in June. Yesterday, Kerry's wife said she believed her husband should have started advertising then, too.

"I've been asking for that for a long time," said Teresa Heinz Kerry as she chatted aboard the campaign plane. "I think advertising in today's world is more important than it used to be."

When asked whether she would become more involved in such decisions amid speculation about an impending staff shuffle, Heinz Kerry said: "I'm not involved in the campaign decisions. I'm only the wife, you know."

Kerry also was overwhelmed with emotion during a prerally stop in Derry, N.H. As Barbara Woodman, a 46-year-old, laid-off medical bibliographer from Concord, N.H., pledged to send her children to college despite her financial distress, tears welled in the senator's eyes and started to roll down his face. "That's very moving, it really is," he said to Woodman, wiping his cheek. "It's very moving; it's tough."