 | Politics "wid" a taste of Philly, by Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News |
| Politics "wid" a taste of Philly, by Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News |
In today's Daily News, we took an in-depth look at a fascinating phenomenon in the 2004 race: The increasingly high profile involvement of Iraq military families -- including those who've lost loved ones -- and 9/11 relatives on the campaign trail.
Here's our report:
When the Republicans talked strong on defense at their convention in New York last month, the John Kerry campaign fired back with one of its most potent weapons: A 56-year-old political novice, a mother of two and lifelong Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs.
Nita Martin told reporters how the second of her two Marine sons to fight in Iraq had to spend his own money to buy an expensive helmet before he left - because the ones issued by the Pentagon don't stop bullets from an AK-47.
Before this year, Martin, who lives in Wallingford, Delaware County, had volunteered to work for only one candidate - the president's father, George H.W. Bush.
But since the military mom hooked up with the Democrats this summer, she's found herself in a political vortex that led to her introducing Kerry to a screaming throng Friday at the University of Pennsylvania campus.
 |
| Jessica Griffin / Daily News |
| "I wouldn’t presume to say we shouldn’t have gone there [Iraq] - that’s not my call. But we shouldn't have gone there based on a lie - and George Bush lied about it." - NITA MARTIN (above, center), who introduced Kerry Friday at the Penn campus. |
Martin is on the cutting edge of a political phenomenon that's taking center stage in a dead-heat presidential election just 36 days away. With Iraq and the war on terror looming large, both Kerry and President Bush are calling on relatives of front-line soldiers and of those who died in Iraq or in the 9/11 attacks.
Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia expert on the presidency and the media, says the personal approach would not have worked as well in the Vietnam era, but is a good fit in modern times.
"In 1972, we weren't in the 'I feel your pain' political era," Sabato said. "We've been conditioned by all the talk shows and 'Dr. Phil' and 'Oprah,' which means that it fits in and doesn't seem artificial."
Indeed, some mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq have achieved a kind of celebrity that might not have been possible a generation ago. First there was Lila Lipscomb, the Flint mom whose agony over her son's death in Iraq propelled Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11." She has since spoken out at several anti-war rallies.
Then came Sue Niederer, the Hopewell, N.J., mother who - wearing a T-shirt that read "President Bush Killed My Son" - was arrested recently for shouting during a Laura Bush event in South Jersey.
Other family members have become involved in the presidential race in less confrontational ways. And the approaches of the two campaigns have been very different.
The Kerry campaign has been eager to tour its support not only from military families but from 9/11 survivors like the so-called "Jersey Girls," a small group of women who lost husbands in the World Trade Center and who've been critical of Bush's handling of the terror war.
Most experts think that surrogates like Nita Martin, with her personal stake in the war, make a better case for Kerry on the Iraq issue than traditional anti-war activists. In a way, her story echoes that of Kerry himself, who volunteered for Vietnam but opposed the war after seeing it firsthand.
Of course, Bush also has a lot of support from military families, who by nature are more likely to back the use of American might overseas. But they have tended to be quieter this year - for obvious reasons.
While a mother who lost a son in Iraq could be a poignant voice on behalf of the president, she would also risk reminding voters of the human cost of the war and of the argument that things have not been going well recently.
On the day that Martin was speaking at the Kerry rally in Philadelphia, Carol Fahnestock was putting a Bush-Cheney sign on the lawn of her yellow-frame home in Carlisle, Pa.
Her 27-year-old daughter, Kimberly Fahnestock Voelz, was killed in Iraq by a booby-trapped explosive device last December. She was the first American female explosive ordnance disposal expert killed in the war, and she died in the arms of her husband, who served in the same unit.
The loss of her daughter has made Fahnestock, who operates a horse stable on her 12-acre property, even more resolute in support of both the war in Iraq and of the president.
She said Carol's death "is all the more reason for us to win over there, so that my daughter would not have died in vain. War is not nice, and freedom comes with a cost - look at the Civil War."
The Bush campaign has also received some low-key support from 9/11 relatives like Deena Burnett, who lost her husband, Tom, on Flight 93, which crashed in western Pennsylvania. She spoke at the recent Republican convention, but not in particular partisan tones.
"The most fitting memorial we could build would not consist of marble, glass or fountains," she told delegates. "It would be a living memorial - carved in our hearts and actions by faith, courage and integrity."
And Bush's most active military surrogate has nothing to do with Iraq. It's Scott O'Grady, the Air Force pilot who captured headlines in 1995 when he survived being shot down over Bosnia. At a recent event sponsored by the Bush campaign, O'Grady accused Kerry of "treason" for his anti-war efforts in the early 1970s after returning from Vietnam.
Frederick Shiels, an international affairs specialist at New York-based Mercy College, called the involvement of the military and 9/11 families in the political campaign "a healthy development."
"People are making that connection that when you're talking about war and talking about foreign policy, you're talking about somebody who has to go and fight these things," Shiels said.
Still, for many family members it's a tough call.
"I know the mother of a Navy SEAL, who is afraid to speak out against the president - because she doesn't want to hurt her son," said Mary Ellen Balchunis-Harris, a professor of political science at La Salle. "Yet, she is working hard for Kerry. She feels that he will work harder to bring her son home safely."
Martin said she was so upset about the course of both the nation and the war she felt she had to get involved - even to the point where she's stopped working at her advertising job.
"This year, I am so scared right to my core that I'm doing anything and everything I can for John Kerry," she said.
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