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The lead editorial from the 7-31-04 ALBANY (OR) DEMOCRAT-HERALD:

Sounds good, but the details?





When he accepted the Democratic nomination for president, John Kerry said nothing to which anybody could object. That's because he said nothing much of substance at all.

As others have pointed out, the biggest foreign challenge on the horizon after Iraq is the move by Iran to develop nuclear weapons. We now get occasional commentaries that Iran is a bigger supporter of anti-western terrorism than Iraq ever was. So what would a Kerry administration do? Not a word from Kerry about that.

On the domestic front, what to do about Social Security in the next 20 years or so looms as a big question that demands an answer pretty soon, the sooner the better.

Kerry promised he would not propose to reduce benefits. Fine. Nobody wants benefits reduced. But how does the system pay full benefits to tens of millions of people who will retire in the next 10 years? Won't taxes have to go up?

Kerry says he'll balance the budget in four years or so - an admirable intention. He wants to get rid of tax cuts for corporations. But corporations pay taxes only on paper. Actual taxes are paid by people, whether they be sole owners of companies, stockholders, employees or customers. Nothing from Kerry about which of those would bear the brunt of tax changes he has in mind.

We've had an economic recovery under way for quite some time now. But Kerry has not heard of it. "Here at home," he said, "wages are falling, health care costs are rising, and our great middle class is shrinking."

Actually, as the Republicans were quick to point out, Business Week has just reported that the economy is creating more high-paying jobs than low-paying jobs.

Yes, health care costs are rising, as Kerry said. But what would he do about it? He has lamented that many Americans lack insurance. But if his solution is to expand insurance through the government, then surely that will do nothing to slow the rise of health-care costs.

Kerry said people were working weekends, working two or even three jobs and "still not getting ahead." He wants voters to think that the economy is lousy and he would rescue it, the way he said the Democrats did in the 1990s. It turns out, though, that the average unemployment so far this year (5.6 percent nationally) is about the same as it was for the same period in 1996, when it was 5.5 percent and Bill Clinton was overwhelmingly re-elected.

And in the last three quarters the gross national product has grown nearly twice as fast as it did in the mid-1990s.

Kerry touched on values: "And it is time for those who talk about family values to start valuing families." No one can disagree. But what would Kerry do to help families? The Republicans charged he had voted to deny legal protection to unborn children, in favor of using federal money to make morning-after pills available in schools to prevent pregnancies, and against extending a child tax credit. Everybody is for families in theory, but how such votes help families he does not say.

The Republicans will have their convention at the end of August, and no doubt they too will shower the country with phrases. Let the Kerry speech be a lesson to them. Let them not repeat so many empty words. (hh)

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