By Ray Barrington
News-Chronicle
Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry became the last presidential candidate to visit Green Bay in advance of today's primary, drawing the biggest crowd - about a thousand people - Monday to the Phoenix Sports Center on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus.
Kerry hopes that will translate into a victory in today's state presidential primary, and polls all week have shown him to be the overwhelming favorite.
So it was no surprise that most of his attacks were not centered on his Democratic Party rivals, but on his likely next opponent - President Bush. Kerry had some competition for the cheers Monday from his opening act - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. The multiterm Massachusetts senator roared his approval of his younger colleague while joking about his own past campaigns in Wisconsin for himself and his brother.
But Kerry followed with a strong speech, invoking the names of John F. Kennedy and other Democratic legends while urging listeners to change the direction of the country with a vote for him not only today but in November. "I'm not just here to mark one more primary," Kerry said. "I'm here to mark the beginning of the end of the Bush presidency."
He said that while President Bush was in Florida watching the Daytona 500 auto race, 350 manufacturing jobs left the country and $171 million was added to the deficit.
"We need a president who doesn't just say 'start your engines' but who says 'we're here to start the engines of the American economy by putting Americans back to work,'" he said.
He said the current administration had backed a "creed of greed" and had allowed companies to save billions in taxes with fake foreign headquarters. He said he would hold the tax code "up to the light of democracy" in an attempt to ease middle-class burdens and close such loopholes.
Kerry drew applause when he said he would sign an order requiring federal officials leaving office to wait five years before becoming lobbyists. He also drew applause with support for changes in health care and a proposal to pay state college tuition to students who worked for at least two years in community service.
And he tied into to John F. Kennedy's "moon by the end of the decade" pledge of the 1960s by suggesting an initiative "to go to the moon here on Earth" by working to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
"No American soldier should ever be held hostage to dependency on oil from the Middle East," he said.
On Iraq, he said the United States needed to concentrate on security, and said the Iraq war was not something that helped in that area. He said the country's homeland security needs included local police and firefighters - something that was popular with the many people wearing yellow "Firefighters for Kerry" T-shirts.
"We shouldn't be opening firehouses in Baghdad and shutting them in the United States of America," he said.
While saying he wouldn't vote for Kerry today - he plans to vote for Howard Dean - Zach Katch of Green Bay liked most of what he heard.
"He was OK. ... He's better than George Bush," said Katch.
One woman from Illinois who read about the Kerry appearance in the newspaper while visiting family decided to see the show.
"I'm hoping he'll follow through on what he says - anything to get Bush out of office," said Marge Massarello of Oak Park.
For Kennedy, it was a return to a state closely tied to his family's political history. John F. Kennedy's narrow victory in 1960 was a key moment in his successful presidential campaign, and Ted Kennedy was reminded recently by a newspaper article of a rash promise he carried out during that run - a ski jump.
"Now, even though I'm 71 - and a little heavier - if it takes a ski jump to help John Kerry, I'll make a ski jump," Kennedy roared to laughter and cheers.
"This was the state that everyone was looking at," he said of that 1960 run. "The lift that President Kennedy got here really established him. Wisconsin was the key."
Kennedy found another local tie, saying he had been contacted by the Packers and coach Lisle Blackbourn in 1955 as a prospect after graduating from Harvard, where he had played end for the Crimson.
Kennedy, however, said, "I'm not going to use up my eligibility until John Kerry is elected president."
That led Kerry to note that Kennedy had stopped by Lambeau Field before the rally and walked on the field, so that "Ted Kennedy came here in a state of grace."
After the speech, Kennedy said he thought Kerry was connecting with voters.
"There's a general sense that this is the time for Sen. Kerry. He's got the inner kind of steely qualities, the determination, the willingness to fight back," Kennedy said.
"I think there is a sense of people coming together behind this candidate."
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