Bring It On?

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  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
      MASSACHUSETTS; UNITED States
    • Subject Terms:
      KERRY, John, 1943-; WELD, Bill, 1945-; BUSH, George W. (George Walker), 1946-
    • Abstract:
      This article traces John Kerry's campaign for the senate against then-governor Bill Weld in 1996, his voting record as Massachusetts senator, and foretells of attacks from George W. Bush. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry likes to say that, if he's the Democratic nominee and President Bush wants to make the election a referendum on national security, he has just three words to say:" Bring It On!" In 1996, Republican Governor William Weld ran an aggressive campaign for Kerry's Massachusetts Senate seat, blasting him as a soft-on-crime, soft-on-welfare, crazed-on-taxes paleoliberal. And it seems plausible that, if Kerry is still playing come the general election, Bush will mention taxes now and then, and might not always provide the full context for Kerry's votes. Kerry is also philosophically opposed to capital punishment. In any case, Kerry's character became a vital issue in his race against Weld. It bears remembering, though, that despite the withering attacks Kerry faced in 1996 he won, beating a charming, successful governor who had just been reelected with 71 percent of the vote. John Kerry knows that, if he does become the Democratic nominee, Bush is going to do more than bring it on. He's going to pour it on, in ways that Weld never could.