A New John Kerry? Delivers Fiery, Outspoken Speech Full of New Ideas

As I write these words, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) is delivering an uncharacteristically fiery and outspoken speech at Brown University. In it, Kerry soundly condemns the Bush Administration on many issues and choices, and declares that "Over the next weeks I will address some of these choices in detail - choices about national security, the war in Iraq, making our nation more competitive and committing to energy independence. "

Senator Kerry's staff sent out to many of us an advance copy of the speech, and I include here for your reading. And I strongly encourage you to take the time read it.....

As you all know, I voted for Kerry in both the 2004 primary and national elections, and I did phone-campaign work for Kerry once he was the Democratic nominee for the presidency. But in the final month of campaigning, I was mildly disappointed by John Kerry's lack of aggressiveness in calling Bush and Cheney out on their obvious failures on the issues.....the War in Iraq, education, US continuing reliance on foreign sources of oil and gas and much more. Afraid to offend, Kerry played it too safely....and he was accordingly perceived as weak.

In this speech, I detect a new John Kerry. One far less concerned about "playing it safe." One ready to speak out, ready to criticize, and ready to profer new, clear-minded ideas as America moves forward to recover from the Bush/Cheney era. A John Kerry who finally feels outrage.....

I particularly admire his list of moral alternatives we have to Bush Administration policies....
-- Instead of allowing a few oil companies to drill their way to windfall profits...
-- Instead of making a mockery of the words No Child Left Behind when China and India are graduating tens of thousands more engineers and PhDs than we are...
-- Instead of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans...
-- Instead of allowing lobbyists to rewrite our environmental laws...
-- Instead of letting a few ideologues get in the way of progress that can make us a stronger and healthier society...
-- And instead of stubbornly disregarding intelligence, using force prematurely and shoving our allies aside...

Take the time to read Senator John Kerry's Landmark Speech at Brown University - Fiery Remarks Delivered on September 19, 2005.
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