Kennedy's Lesson For Kerry

It's not the economy, stupid. It's strength

Jonathan Rauch | July 12, 2004

(Page 2 of 2)

Like Kennedy, Kerry has a credibility gap to close, though Kerry's problem is not his age but his party's 30-year reputation for softness on security. The voters in 2004, as in 1960, view security as a threshold test that Kerry must pass before they will listen to his economic message. And Kerry, like Kennedy, needs a positive theme, a vision. Being the un-Bush will not suffice to capture wavering independent voters.

Kennedy's genius was to solve all of these problems at once by organizing his messages under the single theme of strength and thus stealing the Republicans' best issue. Kerry could do the same. He could argue, for example, that Bush is depleting America's economic, military, and diplomatic strength by running large deficits, stretching the military too thin, and alienating allies.

Of course, Kerry says all of those things already. What he has not done is what Kennedy did: dare to announce that one, and only one, overriding goal will define his candidacy and his presidency, and that this goal is to strengthen and secure a country that is less strong and safe than it ought to be. To do that, Kerry would need to say "strength" so often that people think it's his middle name.

With the platform about to be vetted and the convention coming soon after, Kerry has only a few more weeks to frame his candidacy. Being a fox worked well for Bill Clinton. But 2004 is less like 1992 or 1996 or, for that matter, 2000 (when foreign policy and security hardly registered) than it is like 1960, a year of the hedgehog. What remains to be seen is whether John F. Kerry has the daring and discipline to emulate John F. Kennedy.