US Senator Kerry Officially Kicks off Campaign for Presidency

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 03, 2003

US Senator Kerry Officially Kicks off Campaign for Presidency

US Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a decorated Vietnam war hero, officially declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday.

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US Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a decorated Vietnam war hero, officially declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday.

"Today, with confidence in the courage of our people to change what is wrong and do what is right, I come here to say why I'm a candidate for president of the United States," Kerry told a crowd at Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

In his speech, Kerry slammed President George W. Bush's foreign and domestic policies, saying the president is taken the country in "the wrong direction."

"An economic policy of lost opportunity and lost hopes is wrong for America. An international policy where we stand almost alone is wrong for America," Kerry said to the applause of the crowd. "I will challenge George Bush for fundamentally taking our country in the wrong direction."

To highlight his status as the only one of the nine Democratic presidential candidates who had a combat background, Kerry used the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown as the backdrop of his speech with eight of his Vietnam crew mates watching on.

The four-term senator made his formal announcement after months of campaign. Perceived as the front-runner early on in the campaign, he has lost significant ground to former Vermont governor Howard Dean, his nearest rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, in recent months.

Latest polls gave Dean an advantage of as many as 21 points over Kerry in the key early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. In a CBS News poll released Sunday, Kerry had the support of five percent of voters, compared with the highest number of 14 percent Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut got.

Kerry has come under fire for voting for the US-led invasion of Iraq last year and lambasting Bush for a "rush to war" this year. Critics have accused him of trying to achieve from both sides of the debate.

In his speech, Kerry defended his vote for the authorization of launching war against Iraq. "I voted to threaten the use of force to make Saddam Hussein comply with the resolutions of the United Nations. I believe that was right."

"But it was wrong to rush to war without building a true international coalition, and with no plan to win the peace," he added. "In Iraq and across the world, we must share the burdens with our international allies and the international community."

On domestic issues, Kerry said as president he would roll back the tax cuts Bush proposed for the wealthy "so we can invest in education, health care and the skills of our workers."

He also set goals of, in his first 500 days as president, getting back the 3 million jobs lost under Bush and of cutting the budget deficit in half in the first four years.

Several months after the nine Democratic candidates started their campaigns, polls show that few voters have tuned in long enough to recognize many, of any, of the faces. As the campaign is still in its infancy, Democrats say, the Democratic competition remains wide open.

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