Posted on 06/06/2004 9:00:36 AM PDT by SkyPilot
BOSTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Sunday that he was suspending "overtly political" campaigning in the coming days in observance of former President Reagan's death.
AP Photo
"Ronald Reagan and many of us disagreed on one issue or another, but he always disagreed with a smile, without partisanship," Kerry told reporters after attending church.
"I think he had a sense of idealism and a sense of optimism of the possibilities about our country that define leadership," Kerry said. "We will miss him, no matter what party, no matter what our beliefs. He was a leader, and we'll miss him."
Kerry was flying to Toledo, Ohio, Sunday to speak at the graduation ceremony for Bedford Senior High School. Although the school is in Temperance, Mich., the commencement is across the nearby state line in Ohio. Kerry's aides said he would make a tribute to Reagan in the speech.
Kerry was returning to Washington after the graduation, canceling a trip to Denver where he was to have delivered a speech Monday morning.
"We're going to suspend any sort of overtly political rallies, events like that," Kerry said. He added that he would probably still have private meetings with advisers.
Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said the campaign would determine later in the day how long Kerry would observe Reagan's death and which activities he would cancel, but he would not pull his campaign advertising.
Well, this is in keeping with the theme that only Democrats are allowed to use religious imagery without invoking screams of "church and state".
Let's see if they refer to kerry as a "dangerous, religous zealot" the way they do our President....a man who actually practices what he believes.
The fact is kerry is in big trouble with fellow Catholics; the Catalyst, a monthly Catholic magazine, has destroyed him the past three issues.
Catholics ought to like that ... .
"the Catalyst, a monthly Catholic magazine, has destroyed him the past three issues."
Hmmmm.. I'll have to check out that magazine
Kerry will only suspend campaigning for a few days to get a rest, not out of respect for President Reagan.
No one has paid attention to Kerry in weeks anyway. I didn't even realize he was still campaigning; I thought all he was doing was bike riding.
I think Kerry's people advised him well; however, the truth of the matter is, there would be no way that he would get any attention from the press right now because it is going to be blanketed with Reagan for at least a week. I think Clinton's comments were good. He probably choked on them as he said them, but they were good and Kerry's comments were suspiciously a mirror image of Clinton's.
Is he running for President or Pope? Or is this just in line with his messianic view of himself ('Do you know who I am?')?
Gee--check out the photos from AP. Everyone has a crucifix behind Kerry.
I "heard" that right before kerry said whatever they quoted him as saying, he was pointing at that Crucifix and saying "thats what I'm going to do to Bush ! "
I fail to understand why the pictures show a crucifix. It does not impress me that he posed in front of one and I should think it may offend the Kerry base. I am catholic and a Bush supporter.
This will be the Democrat mantra this week.
...any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we're always "against," never "for" anything.
Ronald Reagan - The Speech
Exactly. I have called this press conference to say there will be no press conference.
So he will be covertly campaigning?
This is a guy who approves of homosexual unions, and who is agreeable to a procedure in which the brains of a living child are sucked from its skull.
Well, he has his back to it because he'll burst into flame if he faces a crucifix for very long. You would have thought being immersed in running water at Chappaquiddick would have done in Ted Kennedy, they must make the evil undead of sterner stuff these days.
Just kidding.
In reality, suspending overtly political action is in his best interests, the less he says and the more the media campaigns for him the better he will do. Plus, it will give him more time to crib more policy from GWB and come up with more ways to say "But it will work better if I do it."
From the Catalyst:
CATHOLICISM EMERGES AS ISSUE
IN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
For the first time in over four decades, Catholicism has emerged as a factor in a presidential campaign. In 1960, Massachusetts Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy had to overcome Protestant critics who objected to having any Catholic in the White House. Now another Roman Catholic JFK from Massachusetts is the source of controversy, namely John Forbes Kerry. Only this time the critics are coming from his own camp—practicing Roman Catholics.
Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in 2004, differs from Kennedy in a couple of ways. Though there is an Irish county by the name Kerry, there is nothing Irish about John Kerry. He is an Austrian whose paternal grandfather was a Czech Jew named Kohn. Before coming to the U.S., Kohn not only converted to Catholicism, he changed his name to Kerry. More important, the issues facing Kerry today are not the ones that Kennedy faced in 1960.
In 1960, abortion was illegal; the birth control pill had just been made commercially available; stem cell research wasn't an issue; euthanasia was taboo; the idea of school choice—in the form of tax relief for parents who sent their children to parochial schools—was opposed by Protestants; and gay unions were unimaginable. Now abortion is legal; birth control is widely used; embryonic stem cell research is an issue; support for euthanasia, in the form of doctor-assisted suicide, is a subject that lawmakers must address; evangelical Protestants are now pro-school choice; and homosexuals want to get married.
For Kerry, these new issues are a problem. His voting record on abortion is the most radical of any senator in the nation—he votes with NARAL, the most extreme pro-abortion organization in the U.S.—100 percent of the time. He supports all methods of birth control; he votes in favor of embryonic stem cell research; he supports doctor-assisted suicide in some cases; he opposes school vouchers; and he not only advocates civil unions for gays, he is one of only 14 senators who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act.
In his new book, Kerry calls himself a "practicing and believing Catholic." Yet in every instance mentioned above he is at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Currently, the bishops are not in agreement about what should be done. So stay tuned. This is one issue that is not going to go away.
Pot calling kettle black.
You said FRiend.
Kerrry=Phony
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