Borrowed words bolster Edwards's case against Bush
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, John Edwards paid George W. Bush the highest of compliments last night.
Four years ago, in speech after speech, Bush promised Republicans and members of the military that ''help is on the way" after eight destructive years of the Clinton administration -- a line that drew standing ovations from conservatives desperate to regain power. Last night, for the most important political speech of his career, Edwards stole the line, then added a populist twist to make it the soaring refrain of his convention speech.
''Some night, you may pass a mother on her way to work the late-night shift. You tell her -- hope is on the way!" Edwards, the North Carolina senator, said in his speech accepting the vice presidential nomination. ''When your parents call and tell you their medicine's going through the roof, they can't keep up, you tell them -- hope is on the way," he continued, the audience joining in to echo the chant. ''When your son or daughter who's serving this country heroically in Iraq calls, you tell them -- hope is on the way!"
More than just an innocent case of plagiarism, the borrowed punchline gives the Kerry/Edwards team a shorthand phrase to illustrate a fundamental element of the Democratic strategy in this campaign: invoking some of the most memorable pledges that Bush made four years back to argue that he never fulfilled him. For Democrats, promising to come to the rescue is another way of suggesting that Bush has failed to do so, but in a more positive tone.
''By invoking the words and phrases that were invoked four years ago, they are asking . . . Are you more hopeful than you were? Did you get more help? Did they lead?" Democratic consultant Jenny Backus said. ''At Bush's convention speech, he told America, 'If they won't lead, I will.' And Edwards and Kerry are now saying they will lead."
In a similar vein, Kerry and his surrogates frequently talk about ''restoring honor and dignity" to the White House -- another line Bush favored in 2000 in his thinly veiled references to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. And Kerry often bills himself as a ''uniter, not a divider," arguing that Bush was insincere when he pledged to ''change the tone in Washington" during the presidential race against Al Gore.
''It gives full meaning to 'hope is on the way' when John Edwards says it, because when John Edwards says it, he means it," Stephanie Cutter, Kerry campaign communications director, said last night. ''And that's in stark contrast with a president who has broken every promise over the last four years."
Bush campaign officials dismissed that portion of Edwards's speech as ''mimicry," saying that a promise of hopefulness is simply a disguised reflection of the Democrats' pessimism about the state of the nation today. ''Pessimism and mimicry are not an agenda for America's families and future," Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said. ''The American people are already hopeful and optimistic. . . . John Kerry's pessimism, combined with his chronic vacillation, indecision, and political gamesmanship regarding the war on terror, won't inspire hope."
But Bush himself spent much of the last presidential race offering the promise of a better future, especially in speeches to stretched-thin military families and long-frustrated Republicans. Campaigning in upstate New York during the Republican primaries in March 2000, Bush told voters: ''You can help begin the end of the Clinton era in Washington, D.C."
''Take a deep breath. Be patient. Because help is on the way," Bush said.
Inherently, pledges to change course work only for challengers, not incumbents. Bush cannot very well offer to restore dignity to the office he has occupied for years, or to change the tone in a capital he has governed, or rescue a military he already commands.
But the decision by Kerry and Edwards to adopt the exact same rhetoric Bush used as an outside challenger is striking. Last night, Edwards's speech reflected several themes that Bush promoted in 2000, including the promise to unite, not divide. ''What we believe -- what John Kerry and I believe -- is that you should never look down on anybody, that we should lift people up," Edwards said. ''We don't believe in tearing people apart. We believe in bringing people together."
In the section of the speech about hope, Edwards offered optimism for all walks of life, a far more extensive version of the Bush rhetoric four years ago. ''When you wake up and sit at the kitchen table with your kids, and you're talking to them about the great possibilities in America, your kids should know that John and I believe to our core that tomorrow can be better than today," Edwards said.
And if there were any doubt that the phrase was carefully planned well ahead of time, dozens of printed signs in the audience, reading ''Hope is on the way," put the notion to rest.
Anne E. Kornblut can be reached at akornblut@globe.com. 