The Orbis

Anyone who has ever attended a peace rally, tuned in to CSPAN for the coverage of the recent protests in New York, or has paid close attention to bumper stickers around college campuses has noticed a certain unavoidable slogan: “Anyone but Bush in 2004.”

A strong statement, this message was bred by what many view as a less-than shining performance by George W. Bush over the last three and a half years. The discontent with Bush’s handling of the war on terrorism, the economy, as well as the alarming erosion of civil liberties of many marginalized groups has cost Bush a great deal of support.

Because of this overwhelming sentiment, the goal of the Democratic primaries focused solely on finding a candidate that could beat George Bush.

John Kerry is the product of those primaries. Different enough from Bush to avoid losing turnout due to indifference, yet still not too extreme for the majority of the voting public (although some have tried to label him so), Kerry seemed likely to depose the Bush administration. What John Kerry must consider in the next nine weeks before the election, however, is the “Anyone but Bush” approach does little to encourage those outside of the Democratic base to vote for him.

Most who hold the opinion that a ham sandwich is better suited to be president than George W. Bush are most likely firm Kerry supporters. These voters do not need any encouraging to show up to the polls to vote for Kerry. They are already present at the rallies and protests, and don’t need to be convinced Kerry is the best candidate.

Instead Kerry must target the swing voters as well as potential nonvoters in order to secure a substantial lead over Bush during the next couple of weeks. Kerry must clearly show how he’s different from Bush, how he plans to lead, and why his plan is better. Kerry has been addressing the concerns of swing voters by exhibiting his war record to show strength in this time of insecurity as well as distinguish himself from the absent military record of the president.

The problem lies in the fact that Kerry has dwelled on his war record and thereby has drawn fire from 527 groups potentially linked to the Bush campaign. He wasted his convention demonstrating his history as a hero, but did little to cover the issues that are significant in this election.

Furthermore, Kerry has yet to energize the many apathetic voters who do not see a reason to participate in this extremely important election.

Kerry needs to more strongly convey his stance on important issues such as education, where he plans to increase the college tax credit, as well as provide funding for after school programs in secondary education.

Kerry needs to point out his plans for increasing coverage to 61 percent of the uninsured and increasing coverage for seniors, as well as his record on patient protection legislation. Furthermore, Kerry needs to explain to the American people, that the only way to win the war on terror is to pursue real terrorists from all parts of the world, many in countries that might be more friendly and hospitable to the United States if a more globally-minded Kerry was elected.

Kerry needs to make it explicitly clear that he plans to give tax cuts to 98 percent of all Americans and 99 percent of American voters in order to strengthen the middle class.

These are all issues that could potentially bring swing states firmly into the blue as Kerry’s potential policies are the ones actually directed to the working American class.

Part of the blame lies in the news media, which continue to refuse necessary coverage of the issues involved in the campaigns, paying more attention to the actual campaigns themselves. For example, though they may cover Kerry’s speech in Washington State, the media fail to go into what was outlined in that speech aside from the obligatory sound bite.

The mass media have miserably failed to point out Kerry’s main stances on important issues; issues that simply cannot be covered by 30 second advertisements.

In what could very well be the most important election of our lifetimes, every vote counts. These votes cannot be won on an anti-Bush reliance alone.

If Kerry does not change the course of his campaign, he faces the risk of losing possibly-energizeable, apathetic voters, swing states voting for Bush and liberal votes that may decide their vote is better wasted on a Nader than wasted on an ineffective Kerry. These three groups will ultimately decide the election for Kerry; it is up to him, and not the “Beat Bush” sentiment, to win their votes this November.

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