Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry pushed his platform to a large crowd, mostly composed of students, at a rally held on Hill Field this afternoon.
Appearing with many of the state's top officials, including Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor John Street, Kerry characterized President George Bush's domestic and foreign policies as deeply flawed, and repeated the cry that this election was one of the most important ever. Echoing Rendell, he asked Penn students who came from non-battleground states to register to vote in Pennsylvania.
Little of Kerry's rhetoric broke new ground. He called Bush the first president to lose jobs and labeled the war in Iraq as a distraction from the more serious issue of finding Osama bin Laden and eliminating al Qaeda, and promised to resolve both difficulties if he was elected. "I will also fight a smarter, more effective war on terror," he said. "I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president."
Though he often spoke in generalities, Kerry elaborated on a couple of his policies, saying that his government would pay for the college education of those who stayed in their communities after graduation and did volunteer work. He talked extensively about health issues, declaring that he would expand healthcare coverage and support stem-cell research.
"America has to step up and take the lead" in science, he said. "I will, day one, sign an executive order that sets America on the road to curing diabetes and Parkinson's."
