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 General election logo First primary election logo Second primary campaign logo | |
| Campaign | 2004 Democratic primaries 2004 U.S. presidential election |
|---|---|
| Candidate | John Kerry U.S. Senator fromMassachusetts(1985–2013) John Edwards U.S. Senator fromNorth Carolina(1999–2005) |
| Affiliation | Democratic Party |
| Status | Announced: September 2, 2003 Presumptive nominee: March 2, 2004 Official nominee: July 29, 2004 Election day: November 2, 2004 Projected defeat: November 3, 2004 |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Key people | Mary Beth Cahill (Manager) Bob Shrum (Consultant) |
| Slogan(s) | A Stronger America Let America Be America Again Stronger at Home, Respected in the World[1] |
| Website | |
| www.johnkerry.com(original site via theInternet Archive.) | |
The2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry, the longtimeU.S. senator fromMassachusetts, began when he formed an exploratory committee on December 1, 2002. On September 2, 2003, he formally announced his candidacy for theDemocratic nomination.[2] After beatingJohn Edwards,Howard Dean,Wesley Clark, and other candidates in the primaries, he became the Democratic nominee, challengingRepublican incumbentGeorge W. Bush in thegeneral election. Kerry selected Edwards as his running mate.
Kerry conceded defeat in a telephone call to Bush at around 11 a.m.EST (16:00UTC) on the morning of November 3, 2004. Had Kerry won, he would have been the first incumbent senator sinceJohn F. Kennedy to be elected president and the secondCatholic president after Kennedy; the latter feat would be eventually accomplished16 years later byJoe Biden. Edwards would have been the first vice president from North Carolina. Kerry also would have been the first president born in Colorado and the fifth president from Massachusetts. Kerry was the most recent Democratic presidential nominee to lose both the electoral vote and the popular vote untilKamala Harris in2024 against Republican nomineeDonald Trump.
Edwards would run for president again in the2008 Democratic primary, finishing third. That year's Democratic nominee,Barack Obama, became the third sitting senator elected president afterWarren G. Harding and Kennedy. Kerry would win for another term as a senator from Massachusetts in2008 until he was nominated by Obama following hisreelection in 2012 asSecretary of State.
Kerry supported enhancing theBalanced Budget Act. In 1993, Kerry voted for theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Kerry supported eliminating tax incentives for companies that move operations overseas and making efforts to reduceoutsourcing.
Kerry was against funding cuts inSocial Security benefits. He opposed privatizing Social Security accounts.
Kerry supported cutting the Bureau for Citizenship and Immigration Services' application pending backlog and reducing the lag for thenaturalization process. Kerry endorsed benefits to legal immigrants. Kerry supported theDREAM Act. Kerry supported the proposal of legalizing the status of illegal immigrants, pending a certain amount of working time in the US and passing a background check. Kerry proposed border enforcement reformation and an increase of border enforcement funding.
Kerry voted for theNo Child Left Behind Act and argues that it should be "fully funded" which would entail funding several programs up to authorized levels of funding. He proposed a new "Education Trust Fund" to require the federal government to fund programs up to their authorized levels. He also proposed a "College Opportunity Tax Credit" for "economically vulnerable" students.
Kerry promised to increase funding for scientific research, to reduce restrictions onstem cell research, and to facilitate cooperation with foreign scientists by improving immigration and visa practices. He said he would support efforts to reduceglobal warming.
As an assistantdistrict attorney, Kerry personally prosecuted armed robbers, rapists, and mob bosses. He is in favor of putting resources in the community, backing the Community Oriented Policing System Act (COPS), and creating laws that lead to criminals being arrested and convicted. Kerry has advocated expanding the COPS program to place 100,000 police officers in community policing assignments. Kerry supports the Police Corps program. In the Senate, Kerry has advocated laws that punish drug dealers and money launderers.
Kerry has long stated his opposition to thedeath penalty, but stated that he would support it in the case of convictedterrorists. He had previously opposed the death penalty for terrorists on the grounds that it would make it difficult to extradite suspects to the United States to stand trial. (Many nations refuseextradition requests, on humanitarian grounds, if the suspect faces execution.)
Kerry's proposals to deal withillegal drugs included focusing on keeping drugs out of the country as well as reducing demand for illegal drugs. Kerry supported aggressively targeting traffickers and dealers. Kerry supported funding drug prevention and treatment programs.
Kerry is a gun owner andhunter. Kerry believes that law-abiding Americans should continue to have the right to own guns, but only guns that fall within the "hunters and sportsmen" paradigm. As he has voted in favour of various gun control measures, theNRA Political Victory Fund gave him anF rating in 2004, their lowest rating.[3] In 2002, the pro-gun controlBrady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence indicated that Kerry voted their preferred position 100% of the time.[citation needed]
As a senator, Kerry has supported:
Kerry affiliates himself with pro-choice women's organizations. Kerry is against the criminalization of abortion. In the Senate, Kerry consistently voted against bans on abortions conducted on military bases and military installations overseas, as well as against the ban onpartial-birth abortion. He has been given a 0% rating from theNational Right to Life Committee and a 100% rating fromNARAL.
In an interview on July 4, 2004, Kerry told theDubuque, Iowa,Telegraph Herald "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception." "I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist," he continued in the interview. "We have separation of church and state in the United States of America."[4]ArchbishopRaymond Burke said that he woulddeny Kerry communion over his position on abortion.[5] The issue led to comparisons between Kerry's presidential campaign and that ofJohn F. Kennedy in 1960. While Kennedy had to demonstrate his independence from the Roman Catholic Church due to public fear that a Catholic president would make decisions based on Vatican commands, it seemed that Kerry, in contrast, had to show obedience to Catholic authorities in order to win votes.[6][7][8][9][10] According to Margaret Ross Sammons, Kerry's campaign was sufficiently damaged by the threat to withhold communion that it may have cost him the election. Sammons argues that PresidentGeorge W. Bush was able to win 53% of the Catholic vote because he appealed to "traditional" Catholics.[11]
Kerry is in favor of the acknowledgement and protection of civil rights for gay and lesbian Americans. John Kerry is an original cosponsor of theHate Crimes Prevention bill and supports passage of theEmployment Non-Discrimination Act. He introduced a very early bill (1985) into the Senate to statutorily forbid sexual-orientation-based discrimination. Kerry cosponsored the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act (CARE) and also sponsored theVaccines for the New Millennium Act.
Kerry supported same-sexcivil unions, but opposedsame-sex marriage. Kerry supported legislation to provide domestic partners of federal employees the benefits available to spouses of federal employees. Kerry voted against theDefense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in the Senate in 1996 and opposes the proposedFederal Marriage Amendment (FMA). He and Senator Edwards were absent for the unsuccessful vote to invokecloture on the FMA, a procedural move that the FMA's proponents had conceded beforehand would be defeated. In an interview with National Public Radio in February 2004, Kerry endorsed equal rights for same-sex couples, but commented that "the word marriage kind of gets in the way of the whole debate," because of the religious origin of marriage as being limited to male-female unions.
Kerry opposed the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Since 1995,Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay-rights advocacy group, has given Kerry a 100% rating for his voting record in Congress.
Kerry states that he supports affirmative action and diversity programs, a claim supported by his Senate voting record. He has, however, expressed reservations about affirmative action in the past, most notably in a 1992 speech in which he reportedly called the practice "inherently limited and divisive," explaining that it "has kept America thinking inracial terms." Kerry has also received some criticism fromAfrican Americans because his campaign inner circle was entirely white.[12] Kerry also remarked on Bill Clinton's close relationship with African Americans: "President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second." Kerry's remark was not well received by some blacks.[13]
Kerry supports supplementing national service in nearly all aspects of American life, including requiringcommunity service for high school students to graduate, a "Summer of Service" for teenagers (essentially community service during summer breaks from school, with a U.S. $500 grant for college), increasing thePeace Corps to 25,000 members, requiring universities that receive Federal funding to offer aROTC, and providing more funding for ROTC scholarships.
Kerry voted in support of the Senate resolution authorizing the President to use force againstSaddam Hussein if he failed to surrender hisweapons of mass destruction and related tools for constructing and distributing them.[14] Kerry, in October 2002, declared his belief that "Iraq has some lethal and incapacitating agents and is capable of quickly producing weaponizing of a variety of such agents, including anthrax, for delivery on a range of vehicles, such as bombs, missiles, aerial sprayers and covert operatives which would bring them to the United States itself." TheNational Intelligence Estimate, to which Kerry had access, held some skepticism of Iraq's capability. Kerry's vote to support the use of force in Iraq was given with strong stipulations that all other peaceful avenues be exhausted first, and that any action of force would be done in conjunction with a world coalition, and not just with the British. (Kerry's full statement before casting his resolution vote)
After the President launched theU.S. invasion againstIraq, without meeting all of Kerry's stipulation, Kerry reiterated his position and declared the administration's Iraq policy reckless at best and baseless at worst. He has since been outspoken against the handling of the war and of the Bush administration's stewardship of occupied Iraq, attacking what he calls poor planning and poor diplomacy on Bush's part, but supports remaining in Iraq until the task of reconstruction and reconciliation is complete. He changed his position on WMDs by saying they were not enough to go to war with Iraq. (Kerry's post-attack view on Iraq) This harmed Kerry's campaign when he was perceived as a "flip-flopper," changing his position to better suit what is popular. This perception was strengthened after a March 16, 2004, debate at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia when Kerry made what would become one of the most famous lines of his campaign stating, "I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars, before I voted against it." The Bush campaign immediately seized on the comment, using the footage in television ads to illustrate its charge that Kerry flip-flops on issues, particularly the war in Iraq."Kerry Discusses $87 Billion Comment,"
Kerry was criticized byHoward Dean and others for his position on the war, which was criticized as inconsistent. Kerry explained his vote authorizing force by claiming that he believed the Senate resolution was intended to be a diplomatic "threat" to Saddam Hussein and not ablank check for war. In the first of the2004 United States presidential debates, Kerry argued that Saddam Hussein had posed a significant potential threat, but that President Bush was premature in going to war. Kerry stated that war should have been a last resort, after diplomatic pressure and efforts byUnited Nations weapons inspectors had been allowed to run their course.
Kerry and Bush sparred repeatedly over Kerry's expression of his policy. Kerry maintained that he has "one Iraq policy", while Bush claimed that Kerry has made major changes in his policy. The Bush campaign says that differences between one Kerry policy statement and another amount to "flip-flops." The nonpartisanFactCheck stated that "Kerry has never wavered from his support for giving Bush authority to use force in Iraq, nor has he changed his position that he, as President, would not have gone to war without greater international support."[15]
Kerry advocates involvingNATO, troops from other countries and theUnited Nations in U.S.-led efforts to achieve the goals of a "stable" and "democratic" world. According to theHarvard Crimson, Kerry said in 1970 that the United Nations should have approval over most of our foreign military operations. "I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations." He has since repudiated this 1970 position. Kerry says he has always believed the United States has the absolute right to defend itself.
Throughout his Senate career, Kerry was also a staunch critic of many foreign policy initiatives of Republican Presidents. He opposed and voted against theGulf War in 1991, and opposed funding theContras inNicaragua and similar armed groups in Latin America.
Kerry was preferred by most US allies, according to aGlobeScan-PIPA poll, conducted during July and August 2004.
Kerry sponsored theCode of Conduct of Arms Transfers Act, which would prohibit U.S. military assistance and arms transfers to undemocratic nations,human rights violators or armed aggressors. Kerry cosponsored an amendment to theDepartment of Defense Authorization Bill that allows the military to transport families of soldiers wounded while on active duty.
Kerry detailed proposals for homeland security efforts include enlisting theNational Guard andAmeriCorps, creating a community defense service, ensuring first defenders and first responders are equipped and ready, improving information technology, reforming domestic intelligence, implementing public health initiatives and improving infrastructure security.
Kerry and fellow Vietnam-era Navy veteran SenatorJohn McCain (R-AZ) had worked together in the early 1990s onU.S. Senate Select POW/MIA Committee. McCain and Kerry later joined to urge President Clinton to lift the trade embargo against Vietnam, which led to normalized relations between the countries but engendered some angry reactions from those involved in theVietnam War POW/MIA issue.
Kerry advocates the removal oftoxins from communities, bolstering theSuperfund cleanup program, and reducing sprawl and traffic congestion.
Proposals for "Green and Clean Communities" include a Toxics Task Force at theEPA, fightingair pollution,water pollution and fighting other environmental hazards. Kerry has proposed a "Conservation Covenant." As part of the covenant, Kerry will extend theEndangered Species Act for the benefits of wildlife andhabitat protection topublic andprivate lands and reinvest public-land royalties back into land protection.
In 2002, Kerry was one of the leaders of the Senate filibuster that defeated the Bush administration's proposal to open theArctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Kerry wants to participate in the development of an internationalclimate change strategy to addressglobal warming.
In 1998, theLeague of Conservation Voters gave Kerry an award for having one of the best environmental voting records in the Senate over the previous five years. In 2004, theSierra Club endorsed Kerry, the first time it had endorsed a presidential candidate before the party conventions.
Kerry proposed a comprehensive health care plan that was more extensive than that proposed by President Bush.[16][17][18] Several estimates were made of the cost of his proposals. While the estimates varied, they all indicated that the funding requirements would be substantial.[19][20]
Early on, John Kerry'scampaign manager wasJim Jordan. However, Jordan was replaced byMary Beth Cahill. Kerry also hiredBob Shrum as a campaign consultant. Cahill and Shrum were known for disagreeing on how the campaign should be run.
Kerry's team of advisors includedRobert Rubin on economic affairs andGary Hart on foreign policy.James Johnson, a Washington businessman and democratic veteran, coordinated Kerry's search for a running mate, eventually settling on John Edwards.
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In sheer numbers, however, Kerry had fewer endorsements thanHoward Dean, who was far ahead in thesuperdelegate race going into the Iowa caucuses in February 2004, although Kerry led the endorsement race inIowa,New Hampshire,Arizona,South Carolina,New Mexico andNevada. Kerry's main perceived weakness was in his neighboring state of New Hampshire and nearly all national polls. Most other states did not have updated polling numbers to give an accurate placing for the Kerry campaign before Iowa.
Heading into the primaries, Kerry's campaign was largely seen as in trouble; the key factor enabling it to survive was Kerry'smortgaging his own home and lending the money to his campaign. He also brought on the "magical"Michael Whouley who was Al Gore's national field director and would later become the Democratic National Committee's National Field Director for Kerry-Edwards. Whouley is widely credited with helping bring home the Iowa victory the same as he did in New Hampshire forAl Gore in 2000 againstBill Bradley.
The only notable labor union to endorse him early was theInternational Association of Fire Fighters; however, Kerry's support quickly snowballed as he won caucuses and primaries. He received a historic endorsement by theUnited Farm Workers on February 1, 2004, inPhoenix, Arizona. This was the first time the UFW had endorsed a candidate in the primary since Robert Kennedy. He received the endorsement of theLeague of Conservation Voters prior to the New Hampshire primary, a first for that organization as well.
He also received the support of each of his former competitors as they lost primaries and dropped out of the race, beginning withMissouri representativeDick Gephardt. Plenty of other notable Democrats followed, as did many labor unions which had previously backed Gephardt or Dean or stayed out of the race entirely (he won the endorsement of the entireAFL–CIO just prior to hisSuper Tuesday showdown with Edwards).
Becoming the nominee, he gained the support of virtually every Democratic politician and organization in the nation. Two notable exceptions were retiringGeorgia SenatorZell Miller, a conservative Democrat, andEd Koch, the former three-term mayor ofNew York City, both of whom endorsedGeorge W. Bush. All of the former candidates for the nomination endorsed Kerry.
On September 29,John Eisenhower, the son of the formerRepublicanpresidentDwight D. Eisenhower, endorsed Kerry in theNew Hampshire Union Leader newspaper, saying that the Republican Party of today "is one with which I am totally unfamiliar".[47]Ron Reagan, son of former PresidentRonald Reagan, endorsed Kerry, saying that Bush had hijacked his father's real legacy for extremist purposes, and spoke at theDemocratic National Convention. Ron Reagan Jr. had a history of opposing his father's policies while President Reagan was in office. Furthermore, Michael Reagan, President Reagan's son from his first marriage, endorsed President Bush. The Senator also gained the endorsement ofMarlow Cook, the former Republican Senator fromKentucky.
Ralph Nader's running mate in the1996 and2000 elections,Native American activistWinona LaDuke, refused to support him in 2004. Instead, she stated: "I am voting for John Kerry this November. I love this land, and I know that we need to make drastic changes in Washington if we are going to protect our land and our communities."[48]
Former Governors ofMaine andMinnesotaAngus King andJesse Ventura, respectively, endorsed Kerry in October 2004.[49] Kerry also gained support from political activistLyndon LaRouche.
In 2004, Vietnam veteran Ted Sampley claimed Kerry gave him the finger in front of photographers at the Vietnam memorial.[50] Rush Limbaugh, in conjunction with his broadcast on the matter, posted a doctored photo of the incident on his website, but stated that the Newsmax report that made the claim was his only source.[51][52]
Early in the 2004 presidential election campaign an organization known asSwift Boat Veterans for Truth was established to challenge John Kerry's bid for the presidency.
The group, led by Vietnam veteranJohn O'Neill, claimed that Kerry was "unfit to serve," based on various cited anecdotes regarding his wartime conduct, but also focused on his past activism in the anti-Vietnam war movement. While Kerry had criticized the government's highly unpopular war policy, the SBVT group claimed that his criticism was a "betrayal of trust" with other soldiers, and that by his activism he had caused direct and inexcusable "harm" to soldiers still at war. (SeeJohn Kerry military service controversy.)
Many believe that the organization's accusations coupled with the Kerry campaign's slow reaction to them were a significant factor in Kerry's November defeat.[citation needed] In addition, Kerry's first line from his acceptance speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention was, "I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty." Critics have argued that this line was inept and that Kerry's emphasis on his Vietnam experience opened the door to the Swiftboat attacks and shifted the national debate towards foreign policy issues, which were Bush's strengths, rather than the economic issues on which Democrats could have had more campaign success.
Kerry's campaign began the process of searching for avice-presidential nominee, sometimes called the "Veepstakes", shortly after Kerry'sSuper Tuesday victories. Kerry namedJim Johnson, former advisor to Vice PresidentWalter F. "Fritz" Mondale, as the head of a vice-presidential search process.
One of the major criteria considered to be a factor in selecting a vice-presidential candidate was the ability to deliver a traditionally Republican or aswing state in the November election. Every successful Democratic presidential campaign since 1960 had included a politician from a swing state (usually in theSouth) who helped deliver one or more states for the Democrats.
By the first week of July 2004, pundits and those close to the Kerry campaign indicated that the vice-presidential selection had narrowed to five potential choices: U.S. Sen.John R. Edwards (N.C.), Ret. GeneralWesley K. Clark (Ar.), U.S. Rep.Richard A. "Dick" Gephardt (Mo.), U.S. Sen.Bob Graham (Fl.), andIowa Gov.Thomas J. Vilsack, all of whom were reportedly instructed to clear their calendars for a potential announcement during the second week of July. Edwards, fromNorth Carolina, Graham, fromFlorida, and Clark fromArkansas all were Southerners; the other two, fromMissouri andIowa respectively, areMidwesterners (the Midwest is viewed as a key region containing numerous swing states).[53] As of late June, thecharismatic Edwards was the first choice of Democratic voters, according to several polls; some pundits attributed this to highname recognition, due to his runner-up status in the primaries.
On the morning of July 6, 2004, Kerry announced the selection of John Edwards as his running mate. However, at 10 p.m. on the night before the official announcement, the information was leaked by an airport worker who saw Edwards's name being painted on Kerry's plane, which was to be used to announce his choice of running mate. On July 6, the Kerry campaign sent ane-mail message to his supporters at about 8:15 a.m. EDT informing them of the choice, and made the formal announcement for 9 a.m. EDT inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Kerry and Edwards were previously considered as potential running mates for Democratic presidential nomineeAl Gore in the2000 election, however Gore later chose SenatorJoe Lieberman fromConnecticut for the ticket.
At theDemocratic National Convention in Boston from July 26 to 29, 2004, Kerry made hisVietnam War experience a prominent theme. In accepting the nomination, he began his speech with, "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty."
Following his official nomination at the convention, Kerry received only a small bounce[54] in the polls and remained effectively tied with his opponent, Bush. This was the first time in recent political history that a candidate failed to receive a substantial boost in post-convention poll numbers.[54] Some political pundits[55] attributed this small boost to the unusually small number of undecided voters as compared with previous presidential elections.
On March 13, while at a speaking engagement inQuincy,Illinois site of one of the historicLincoln-Douglas debates, Kerry challenged Bush to a series of monthly debates. The Bush campaign declined the challenge.
On September 20, the Bush campaign and the Kerry campaign jointly released a memorandum of understanding between the two campaigns. The 32-page MOU covered in minute detail many aspects of the staging and format for the presidential and vice-presidential debates.
On September 30, Kerry and Bush debated atUniversity of Miami inCoral Gables, Florida in the first of threescheduled debates. This debate focused on foreign policy issues.Polls conducted immediately following the debate suggests that a majority of undecided voters believe that Kerry fared better than Bush did.
On October 8, Kerry and Bush debated atWashington University in St. Louis in a town-hall style debate, with the questions asked by the audience of undecided voters. Polls were split as to who won this debate, as Bush's performance was greatly improved.
On October 13, Kerry and Bush debated atArizona State University inTempe, Arizona. The focus of this debate was domestic policy issues. Again, polls were split, but more indicated a win for Kerry than Bush.
Additionally, on October 5, the vice presidential candidatesSenatorJohn Edwards andVice PresidentDick Cheney engaged in a debate atCase Western Reserve University inCleveland, Ohio.
Kerry took public funds to finance his campaign, agreeing to a $74.6 million limit.
Some of Kerry's popular support came from "Anybody but Bush" voters - those who voted for him as a repudiation of the Bush administration's policies. One of the major focuses of his campaign was to attract voters to his stances on the issues, instead of as ade facto opponent of the President.
The official Kerry for President website declares:
John has a bold, new vision for America. An America safe from foreign threats and greedy special interests. John has the experience and plans to lead America to better jobs, quality health care, energy that is clean, renewable, and independent, and greater opportunities for our children.
TheKansas City Star endorsed Kerry before the Missouri primary and wrote of him:
Kerry has the right combination of intelligence, experience and thoughtful, progressive views for the job. His military record—he received both aBronze Star and aSilver Star for acts of bravery in Vietnam—as well as his defense and foreign policy expertise clearly make him the best qualified Democrat to lead the nation in the continuing fight against our adversaries abroad...Kerry has decades of public service that are available for scrutiny and review. It is an excellent record, one that contains abundant evidence of the senator's commitment to the country and its better impulses.
TheChattanooga Times Free Press endorsed Kerry before the Tennessee Democratic primary and editorialized:
If Mr. Kerry is, by contrast [to Mr. Bush], a 'liberal,' at least his policies make sense and would benefit all Americans. He has supported the sort of responsible domestic policies that boost education, support job creation and improve health care for all. With his personal war experience and deep background in foreign policy, he would exercise sound diplomacy in foreign affairs.
TheWashington Post had this editorial comment on Kerry's approaching front-runner status:
JOHN KERRY has become the favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination without a detailed or clarifying debate on many issues.... Now, with the nomination seemingly within his reach, the Massachusetts senator must begin to more fully explain where he stands on the major challenges facing the country.That task is particularly important for Mr. Kerry because of his fuzziness on issues ranging from Iraq to gay marriage. ... But even a more independent assessment of Mr. Kerry can lead to puzzlement. He says he opposes gay marriage, yet voted against the federal Defense of Marriage act. He voted for the North American Free Trade agreement yet now talks in protectionist terms.
In an appearance inMilwaukee, fellow candidate and political rival Howard Dean stated, "When you act like Senator Kerry does, he appears to be more like George Bush than he does like a Democrat."
Critics of Kerry citeAssociated Press reports that Kerry made efforts to keep loopholes for special interests. One loophole allowedAmerican International Group to profit fromliability insurance coverage it provided for the "Big Dig" project inBoston. AIG later provided the funds for Kerry's trip to Vermont and donated $30,000 (or more) to a group used to set up Kerry's presidential campaign (Company executives also donated $18,000 to his campaigns).Charles Lewis, head of theCenter for Public Integrity, stated that "the idea that Kerry has not helped or benefited from a specific special interest, which he has said, is utterly absurd."[56] Kerry has denied any connection between his assistance to AIG and its contributions to his campaign.
Kerry was in favor of free markets, free trade, and fiscal prudence. TheAmericans for Democratic Action, a prominent liberal organization, rates Kerry's voting record better than that of SenatorEdward Kennedy (D-MA), causingRepublican National Committee chairmanEd Gillespie to joke, "Who would have guessed it? Ted Kennedy is the conservative senator from Massachusetts."[57] (Kerry got a 93% from the ADA, Kennedy an 88%.)[58]
On June 21, 2004, 48Nobel laureates endorsed Kerry as they thought that he would increase the prosperity, health, environment, and security of Americans, attract talented scientists and engineers from abroad; and nurture a business environment that creates quality jobs. They criticized theBush administration for reducing funding for scientific research, setting restrictions onstem cell research, ignoring scientific consensus on critical issues such asglobal warming, and hampering cooperation with foreign scientists by employing deterring immigration and visa practices.[59]
Apoll conducted in July and August 2004 showed that of citizens of 35 countries, 30 preferred Kerry over Bush. OnlyNigeria, thePhilippines andPoland preferred Bush.India andThailand were divided. US Allies such as the UK (47% Kerry to 16% Bush), Germany (74% Kerry to 10% Bush), Spain (45% to 7%), Italy (58% to 14%), Japan (43% to 23%) were all in favor of Kerry. Other countries such as Mexico (38% to 18%), Colombia (47% to 26%), China (52% to 12%) and South-Africa (43% to 29%) were in favor of Kerry as well.
Kerry's campaign used many slogans to describe his run for the presidency:
Apresidential transition was contingently planned from Bush to Kerry. Prior to the election, Kerry and his senior advisors began discussing details for a potential presidential transition should he defeat President Bush, but the discussions were kept low-key.[60] By late-October, it was reported by theAssociated Press that aides to Kerry had anonymously told them that the transition process was behind schedule, but had still offered assurances that Kerry would be prepared to name his national security team soon after the election. With ongoing war, Kerry believed that it would be necessary to put such a team in place quickly during a transition after the election.[60] On October 19, it was announced thatJim Johnson, who had led the search for Kerry's running mate, andDavid McKean would officially lead the transition effort.[61]
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