Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry pledged to restore middle-class values to America in a speech at a rally on Hill Field Friday.
On his 19th visit to Pennsylvania since March, Kerry was introduced by many of the state's top officials, including Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor John Street. Boxing middleweight champion and Philadelphia native Bernard Hopkins symbolically prepared Kerry for election fights by handing him a pair of light boxing gloves.
Though Kerry launched into a speech that covered the entire gamut of his policies, from health care to AIDS prevention, little of his rhetoric broke new ground. He characterized President George W. Bush's domestic and foreign policies as deeply flawed, and repeated the cry that this election was one of the most important ever.
In one of his few direct statements to Penn students, he asked those who live in non-battleground states to register to vote in Pennsylvania -- a hotly contested swing state.
Kerry accused Bush of catering to the wealthy at the expense of the less fortunate, pointing to tax cuts and the largest budget deficit in American history as examples of the administration's poor economic policy.
"Every time George Bush has had an opportunity to make a choice ... he chooses the powerful, the privileged, the wealthy," Kerry said. "My choice is the middle class in America and those struggling to get into it."
Kerry asserted that the quality of life in America has decreased, with people having to work significantly harder to afford basic necessities such as health care. He noted that many could no longer afford health insurance, and promised to rectify the problem for each and every American.
"Under my plan, every single child in America is going to be covered by insurance," he said. "We're going to allow an American who wants to, to buy in on the same drugs and health care that senators and Congress give themselves, because that's what makes sense."
Following his campaign theme, Kerry focused intensely on the war in Iraq, saying that Bush rushed into the conflict with too few troops and without designing a plan to peacefully rebuild the country. He attempted to delineate the difference between the war in Iraq and the war on terror.
"This president took his eye off the ball, took his eye off the real war on terror, which is against al Qaeda, against Osama bin Laden, against terror in 60 countries," he said. "He invaded a nation where there weren't any terrorists, but there are today."
Kerry was even echoed on stage by a registered Republican. Nita Martin, a member of Moms with a Mission, a group of mothers whose children are in military service in Iraq, said she was voting for Kerry because Bush had sent her sons to a war with no plan to ensure their return.
Kerry, who earlier in the day outlined his plan for fighting terrorism at Temple University, attacked the support the Bush administration has given to Halliburton and other oil giants, saying America must reduce its dependency on Middle Eastern oil.
"I want the energy policy of the USA to depend on America's ingenuity and creativity and innovation, not the Saudi royal family," he said. "I want us to embark on the next great cycle of discovery."
