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Kerry says Edwards injecting 'enthusiasm'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-11 11:22
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says his selection of John
Edwards as his running mate seems to have injected energy into the
campaign. Still, he recognizes the dangers of being swept up by the excitement
of the moment and growing complacent.
US Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, and Democratic Vice Presidential
candidate Sen. John Edwards, D-NC, react to the crowd as they arrive at
a campaign rally on the University of North Carolina-Raleigh campus in
Raleigh, N.C. Friday, July 9, 2004. [AP
Photo] |
"We're going to campaign intensely. There's not going to be any letup, and
I'm very confident that the enthusiasm we are seeing is real," he said in an
interview with The Associated Press.
Edwards, interviewed alongside Kerry, stopped short of saying he could help
win the South for Democrats. The North Carolina senator had made that claim when
he ran against Kerry for the nomination.
"I think we will be very competitive in the South, particularly in those
states in which national Democrats need to be competitive to be successful,"
Edwards said.
Kerry and Edwards were ending four days of joint campaigning with a Saturday
rally in Edwards' hometown, Raleigh, N.C.
Kerry was heading home to Boston afterward for a classified briefing from the
Bush administration on the latest terror threats. Edwards begins a week of solo
campaigning on Wednesday with stops in Iowa, Illinois, Florida, California,
Louisiana and Texas.
"This is a national campaign, and I intend to campaign on behalf of the
ticket all over America — in the Midwest, in the Southwest, in the South,"
Edwards said.
The Democratic senators conducted interviews with the AP and other news
organizations as they wrapped up a joint tour that included campaign stops in
New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida and West Virginia.
As they flew on Kerry's campaign plane — Edwards is getting his own on Sunday
— the men appeared to enjoy each other's company. In fact, there has been so
much hugging and grabbing over the past few days that the team became the target
of comedians on late-night television.
"We're a great couple," Kerry joked.
Edwards had been the final major challenger in the Massachusetts senator's
path to the nomination.
Asked if Edwards' enthusiasm and youthful charm would affect the Kerry
campaign style, the candidate said, "He's a wonderful addition to the campaign.
But my campaign has been growing. We've been drawing record amounts of money,
over US$100 million. I think the campaign has enormous energy.
"And it's not because of me, and it won't be because of John, but because
both of us reflect the desire of most Americans to move our country to a
stronger place, to restore our respect in the world, to put people back to work
and make life fair," Kerry said.
Does Kerry worry that Edwards, a trial lawyer with a celebrated rhetorical
flair, might upstage him at the party's convention and on campaign platforms?
"I hope he does; that's terrific. That means I really picked him better than
I thought," Kerry said.
Edwards joined in: "How in the world do you upstage — I might have missed
something, but I think he won the nomination."
"And there's a reason he won the nomination," Edwards said. "The truth is
that we're a great team; we're a great partnership; we're having fun."
Kerry dismissed criticism from Republicans about a Democratic fund-raising
concert Thursday in New York at which entertainers used such characterizations
as "liar" and "cheap thug" to castigate Bush.
The GOP criticized Kerry and Edwards, the guests of honor, for not denouncing
the attacks.
"We speak for ourselves. The folks who entertain have their own views, and
they don't speak for us and they didn't speak for us," Kerry said.
"And some of them, in our judgment, went over a line that neither of us would
choose to go over. But we understand their anger. We understand their
frustration," Kerry said.
The candidates shrugged off suggestions their wealth — both are
multimillionaires — would complicate their efforts to speak for the average
citizen.
"If that were the standard, we would have missed out on two great presidents
of modern times, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy," Kerry said.
"You know, the measurement of our values and the measurement of where we're
heading for America is not the size of the bank account; it's what you do with
your life and what you fight for every single day," Kerry said.
Added Edwards: "Nobody can doubt what our priorities are, what our values
are."
On the issues, Kerry said Iraq is the most troubling foreign matter of the
campaign, and the situation there is putting enormous burdens on the U.S.
military.
"Nobody knows what we're going to inherit in Iraq," Kerry said.
"But I can tell you this: both John and I are committed to guarantee that we
don't have a failed state in Iraq which presents a danger to the United States,"
Kerry said.
"We will do more effective diplomacy and bring other countries to the table
which this administration has failed to do," he said.
During their primary campaign, Edwards and Kerry disagreed most strongly on
trade. Edwards, whose home state North Carolina's textile industry has been
battered by low-cost foreign imports, took a harsher, more protectionist stance.
Kerry voted for a string of free-trade agreements, including the North
American Free Trade Agreement, that Edwards opposed or criticized.
In the interview, both denied their differences over trade had ever been that
great.
Kerry voiced opposition to several pending trade agreements in their present
forms. He criticized provisions in a pending pact with Australia that he said
would hurt U.S. dairy farmers.
Kerry also said that without more protections for workers and the
environment, he could not go along with Bush's proposals for free-trade zones in
the Western Hemisphere and along the Pacific Rim.
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