NYT: Kerry Recruits Votes for Today & Politicians for Tomorrow

[DeepModem Mom]

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: April 14, 2004


BOSTON, April 13 — Senator John Kerry was doing his best to channel John F. Kennedy again, denouncing apathy and trying to get young people excited about politics and public service....

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Mr. Kerry has been giving speeches like this (to a forum of college students in Providence, Rhode Island) his whole life. In January 1972, only a few years out of college himself but after two tours in Vietnam, he urged Dartmouth students to ignore talk of revolution and "get into politics and make the system work." But now he is counting on winning big among the young in November, and he is seeking to mobilize students the way he says Kennedy inspired his own generation....

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(According to the article, "Mr. Kerry remains hit-or-miss on the stump, and on Monday at the University of New Hampshire, he drew only polite applause from a thin crowd that could not fill even the draped-off section of a hockey arena," but in Providence "seemed more comfortable in the give-and-take of a question-and-answer session.")

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Mr. Kerry...talked up his plans for a $4,000 tuition tax credit and for rewarding two years of community volunteer work with a scholarship to a four-year public college. He then attacked President Bush over financing for college tuition at a time when tuition has risen 28 percent in three years....

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In Rhode Island and then in Massachusetts on Tuesday night, Mr. Kerry continued his brisk fund-raising pace with two events, each of which, his campaign said, set a state record for a Democratic presidential candidate. At a luncheon at the Providence Biltmore Hotel, aides said he raised $1 million from 800 people in checks of $500 to $2,000....At the Sheraton Boston hours later, Mr. Kerry raised more than $4 million, organizers said, from a crowd that the organizers put at 3,000....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/14/politics/campaign/14KERR.html