John Kerry for President by Reuters / JohnKerry.com 3:56pm 3rd Mar, 2004   March 3, 2004. Reuters.    US Senator John Kerry has captured the Democratic nomination to challenge President George W Bush in November, scoring a string of coast-to-coast wins that knocked rival John Edwards out of the race.    Senator Kerry, who received a call of congratulations from Mr Bush, quickly turned his focus to the general election and said he was "a fighter" who would challenge the president on a range of issues.    "Tonight the message could not be clearer, all across our country, change is coming to America," Senator Kerry told supporters in Washington.    "With one united Democratic Party, we can and we will win this election."    The Massachusetts senator continued his domination of the Democratic race on its biggest night of voting, scoring wins in nine states including victories in Georgia, Minnesota and Ohio, which had been targeted by Mr Edwards.    The wins capped a spectacular political resurrection for Senator Kerry, whose campaign was considered dead just two months ago but charged back to life as Democrats began to evaluate which candidate stood the best chance to beat Mr Bush in November.    Senator Kerry and Mr Bush now embark on what promises to be a hard-fought, eight-month general election campaign.    Mr Bush, who trails Senator Kerry in some opinion polls, launches his first television ads in 17 battleground states on Thursday as he starts to spend a more than $100 million campaign war chest.    Mr Edwards had hoped to slow Senator Kerry's march to the nomination, but narrowly lost Georgia and was swamped in most of the other states voting on "Super Tuesday".    He cancelled a planned campaign trip to Texas to return home to North Carolina, where aides said he will end his White House bid in a speech at the Raleigh high school attended by two of his children.    "We have been the little engine that could, and I am proud of what we have done together, you and I," Mr Edwards told supporters in Atlanta, claiming his campaign had put issues like poverty, civil rights and race back at the front of the Democratic agenda.    Dean finally wins    Former presidential contender Howard Dean, who dropped out of the race two weeks ago without a single win, triumphed in his home state of Vermont to spoil Senator Kerry's bid for a perfect sweep.    Mr Dean, once the front-runner in the Democratic race, was still on the ballot in Vermont, where he served as governor for 11 years.    "While I ran for president I often said that America would be a better place if it was more like Vermont," Mr Dean said in a statement. "I still believe that to be true."    In addition to Georgia, Minnesota and Ohio, Senator Kerry won in California, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island and his home state of Massachusetts, giving him 27 wins in the first 30 Democratic contests.    At stake on Tuesday was a total of 1,151 delegates to July's nominating convention - more than half of the 2,162 delegates needed to win and the campaign's biggest one-day haul.    The wins did not give Senator Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, enough delegates to clinch the nomination, but made it almost mathematically impossible for Mr Edwards, his last major rival, to catch him.    Even while battling Mr Edwards, Senator Kerry had been keeping his eyes on a November match-up with Mr Bush and focusing his attacks on the president's economic and foreign policy.    Mr Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said the president called Mr Kerry to congratulate him on "an impressive victory".    "He said that Senator Kerry had won the nomination against a tough field and ... he was looking forward to a spirited race," Mr Stanzel said.    "Senator Kerry thanked him for the call and indicated that he was looking forward to the race and said he hoped they could keep it to the issues."    Senator Kerry said the two men had "a nice conversation" and he told Mr Bush, "I hoped we had a great debate about the issues before the country".    Mr Edwards had put his plans to create more opportunities for American workers and stem the flow of US jobs to foreign countries at the centre of his campaign, which regularly focused on the economic barriers facing America's middle- and lower-classes.    Senator Kerry praised Mr Edwards's contribution and said he brought "a compelling voice to our party, great eloquence to the cause for working men and women, and great promise for leadership in the years to come".    -- Reuters    John Kerry for President    US Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is the leading US Democratic presidential nomination, who will challenge US President George Bush in the upcoming elections in the United States later this year. Following are extracts from John Kerry for President.    ..A graduate of Yale University, John Kerry entered the Navy after graduation, becoming a Swift Boat officer, serving on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. He received a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, and three awards of the Purple Heart for his service in combat.    By the time Senator Kerry returned home from Vietnam, he felt compelled to question decisions he believed were being made to protect those in positions of authority in Washington at the expense of the soldiers carrying on the fighting in Vietnam. Kerry was a co-founder of the Vietnam Veterans of America and became a spokesperson for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War -- Morley Safer would describe him as "a veteran whose articulate call to reason rather than anarchy seemed to bridge the gap between Abbie Hoffman and Mr. Agnew's so-called 'Silent Majority.'" In April 1971, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he asked the question of his fellow citizens, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Sen. Claiborne Pell, (D-R.I.) thanked Kerry, then 27, for testifying before the committee, expressing his hope that Kerry "might one day be a colleague of ours in this body."    Fourteen years later, John Kerry would have the opportunity to fulfill those hopes - serving side by side with Sen. Pell as a Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But in the intervening years, Kerry graduated from Boston College Law School and found different ways to fight for those things in which he believed. Time and again, Kerry fought to hold the political system accountable and to do what he believed was right. As a top prosecutor in Middlesex County, Kerry took on organized crime and put the Number Two mob boss in New England behind bars. He modernized the District Attorney's office, creating an innovative rape crisis crime unit, and as a lawyer in private practice he worked long and hard to prove the innocence of a man wrongly given a life sentence for a murder he did not commit.    In 1984, after winning election as Lieutenant Governor in 1982, Kerry ran and was elected to serve in the United States Senate, running and winning a successful PAC-free Senate race and defeating a Republican opponent buoyed by Ronald Reagan's reelection coattails. Like his predecessor, the irreplaceable Paul Tsongas, Kerry came to the Senate with a reputation for independence -- and reinforced it by making tough choices on difficult issues: breaking with many in his own Party to support Gramm-Rudman Deficit Reduction; taking on corporate welfare and government waste; pushing for campaign finance reform; holding Oliver North accountable and exposing the fraud and abuse at the heart of the BCCI scandal; working with John McCain in the search for the truth about Vietnam veterans declared POW/MIA; and insisting on accountability, investment, and excellence in public education.    Sen. Kerry was re-elected in 1990, again in 1996, defeating the popular Republican Governor William Weld in the most closely watched Senate race in the country, and in 2002. Now serving his fourth term, Kerry has worked to reform public education, address children's issues, strengthen the economy and encourage the growth of the high tech New Economy, protect the environment, and advance America's foreign policy interests around the globe.    John Kerry is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry. He has two daughters, Alexandra and Vanessa. Teresa has three sons, John, Andre, and Christopher. Senator Kerry lives in Boston.    Vision for Making America Secure Again and Setting the Right Course for Foreign Policy.    At the Council on Foreign Relations, Senator John Kerry outlined the steps he would take to reverse the damage to U.S. security and leadership caused by President Bush’s flawed policies of unilateralism and preemptive war. Kerry recognizes that a global security effort and the war against terrorism require active participation of the international community.  As President, John Kerry will move quickly to rebuild American alliances and define a global security strategy that is collective, not imperial, inclusive not exclusive, and cooperative not unilateralist.     In his speech, Kerry outlined the failures of the Bush Administration’s unilateralist foreign policy and described a detailed strategy for building alliances within the international community to win the war on global terrorism.    GEORGE BUSH’S FOREIGN POLICY HAS UNDERMINED AMERICA’S SECURITY.    The Bush Administration has pursued the most reckless foreign policy in modern history, turning its back on a century of American leadership. A President with no experience has implemented a strategy of unilateral and pre-emptive war that threatens to America’s safety and prosperity. In two short years, the Bush Administration has squandered the goodwill of the world, alienated our allies, overextended our troops, and compromised America’s security.    John Kerry believes that, despite the RNC’s public relations campaign, the Bush Administration’s failures in the war on terror speak for themselves. Osama bin Laden remains at large, while Indonesia, the Phillipines, Kenya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey have come under assault by terrorists. Al Qaeda and the Taliban are regrouping in Afghanistan, creating the specter that it will again become a haven for global terrorism. Due to the lack of a post-war reconstruction plan and unwillingness to internationalize the effort, the situation in Iraq has degenerated into guerilla warfare and a new front in the war on terror.  A stagnant peace process in the Middle East, long ignored by the Administration, is a lightening rod for anti-Americanism. And our security is further compromised by an unresolved North Korean nuclear situation, underfunded Homeland Security initiatives, and stalled critical intelligence reforms.    Build Bridges to the Islamic World    John Kerry’s plan for building bridges to the Islamic world recognizes that positively influencing the hearts and minds of people in the region is a key component to winning the long-term war on terror. In recent years, the capacity of the United States to communicate and persuade has constricted even as the need has grown because our diplomatic presence abroad has been squeezed by tight budgets and our diplomats have been forced to withdraw behind concrete barriers in the face of terrorist threats.  A Kerry Administration would fight to expand our diplomatic presence with a particular focus on the Islamic world. Kerry’s plan would:    Promote Dialogue and Understanding by Appointing a Presidential Envoy to the Islamic World. Kerry will improve the reputation and understanding of America in the Islamic world by appointing a Presidential envoy who will be tasked with building social, cultural, and economic relations in key nations.    Assist Civil Society Groups and Governments that Aid Democracy, Public Participation, and Free Expression. Kerry will ensure that the U.S. government works with the private sector and international institutions to help civil society groups and governments aid democracy, public participation, free expression, transparency and efficient economic management.    Promote Cultural Understanding. Kerry will support the establishment of study centers within U.S. universities, expand development of “American corners” in cultural and educational institutions in the Arab and Islamic world, and launch a significant translation project to bolster material available in Arabic and other regional languages.    Support the Creation of Opportunity for Youth in the Arab and Islamic World.  Kerry believes that the U.S. should lead and support multilateral institutions in defining and implementing a mission for business development and technological advancement in the Arab and Islamic world. This strategy should emphasize an important role for women, creating a positive example of societies in which women are full economic participants.    Promoting Democracy and Respect for Human Rights    “We must place increased focus on the development of democratic values and human rights as the keys to long term security. . . in light of recent events, it has become even clearer that the preservation of American liberty is not only linked to the expansion of democracy, but dependent upon it.”    Senator Kerry has consistently supported programs that promote democracy and respect for human rights.  He sponsored the Code of Conduct of Arms Transfers Act, legislation that would prohibit U.S. military assistance and arms transfers to nations that are undemocratic, do not adequately protect the human rights of their citizens, or engage in acts of armed aggression.  He was also instrumental in facilitating the creation of the UN genocide tribunal in Cambodia, travelling to the country several times to mediate negotiation of its governing statute, and was a strong proponent of U.S. participation in the NATO intervention that put an end to the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.  A longtime supporter of the pro-democracy efforts of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he has met with personally, Kerry recently co-sponsored bipartisan legislation imposing sanctions on that country’s military regime for detaining the activist and repressing her National League for Democracy party.    Fighting HIV/AIDS    “The United States must be a leader in assembling an international coalition with other governments and private sector partners a coalition with the will and the resources to confront the pandemic of HIV/AIDS with the same will that we bring to the war on terrorism.”    Senator Kerry has been at the forefront of the battle against HIV/AIDS, authoring major elements of the Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act of 2000, legislation that was signed into law by President Clinton in August of 2000.  He subsequently authored the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2002, sweeping legislation that would have significantly increased funding for treatment of these diseases while requiring the U.S. to adopt a comprehensive five year plan to win the global war against AIDS.  That legislation was passed unanimously by the Senate and was a primary force in prompting the Administration to endorse global AIDS legislation this year.  As he said in calling on America to take the lead in confronting the AIDS crisis in developing nations, “Responding is not only morally right, but deeply practical and fundamentally important to the cause of global stability and ultimately our own safety. How can countries or whole continents torn apart by an untreated epidemic successfully resist the call to violence, terror, and the trade of weapons of mass destruction?” Senator Kerry currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Center for Strategic & International Studies Task Force on Strengthening U.S. Leadership on HIV/AIDS. Visit the related web page
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