US: Presidential candidates like to insert a profound phrase or sentence into their acceptance speeches, which they hope will define what they are about. John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech is remembered for his claim that America was on the edge of a "new frontier", and the phrase entered the political lexicon., writes Conor O'Clery
But more often than not the remembered phrase is one that terminally damages a campaign, like Barry Goldwater's 1964 statement that "extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice . . . moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue".
George McGovern is remembered for his 1972 catch-cry "Come home America" which he delivered when most of America had indeed gone home - to bed - as it was by then 3.25 a.m. Walter Mondale self-destructed his campaign for the Democrats in 1984 when he said taxes would be raised, no matter who won the White House. "He [Reagan\] won't tell you. I just did," he said. He was right: Reagan won, and taxes were raised.
George Bush snr now undoubtedly wishes he never said "Read my lips, no new taxes" in 1988. It won him the election but sank his 1992 campaign after he broke his promise. George W. Bush is remembered for pledging in 2000: "I will restore honour and integrity to the Oval Office." He should have patented it. The line on Thursday night for which John F. Kerry may be remembered was: "I will restore trust and credibility to the White House."
Out on the campaign trail yesterday President Bush declared, in a new version of his stump speech, that Democrats believed the "heart and soul of America can be found in Hollywood" but that in fact it was "right here in Springfield, Missouri" (or wherever Bush happened to be speaking). This was a direct response to the fact that Hollywood celebrities and other entertainers were much in evidence at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. They included Ben Affleck, Danny Glover, Janeane Garofalo, Glenn Close, Alec Baldwin, Sean Combs (designer of the T-shirt "Vote or Die!") Sarah Jessica Parker and husband Matthew Broderick and Cynthia Nixon (the ginger-haired one in Sex and the City).
Affleck turned up all over the place in Boston. He was spotted at a ball game with John Kerry, at a policy session with Bill Clinton and performing on CNN with pundit Bill Schneider. The 6ft 4in star delivered pep talks to state delegations telling them: "The deficit is financing tax cuts for millionaires like me." He didn't get enough of it in Boston. Yesterday he popped up with Kerry and Edwards on the campaign in Pennsylvania. The Republicans will counter with their own Hollywood celebrity, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will give a keynote address at their New York convention in four weeks.
Last week it emerged that former Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger was the subject of a Justice Department inquiry into his removal of copies of classified documents from the National Archives. Critics of the Democrats had a field day, rushing to judgment, speculating that Berger was trying to hide documents in which he had advised against an attack on al-Qaeda.
Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he was "dismayed" that Berger was attempting to "pilfer" documents. However, the matter seems to have been laid to rest. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that officials looking into the document removals say no original material is missing, and nothing Mr Berger reviewed was withheld from the commission investigating the September 11th attacks. He was in fact provided only with photocopies to review and officials have accounted for all original documents to which Mr Berger was given access, according to the National Archives spokesperson.
There was no "dirty trick" it seems behind the publication of photographs of John Kerry wearing an anti-contamination suit while touring the shuttle Discovery, which made him look like Woody Allen dressed as a sperm in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask.
After the pictures appeared in the media, Kerry's campaign aides claimed angrily that they were not supposed to be released publicly. "This was a leaked photo," Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill told Fox News. The National Aeronautics and Space Agency retorted that their photographers always take photographs of visiting dignitaries.
NASA spokesman Bill Johnson said the Kerry campaign even asked specifically that the pictures be taken of the senator's tour of the Discovery in a hygienic suit. The spokesman said the space agency provided the photographer to document Kerry's visit, and gave the photographs to the Kerry campaign to review before they were posted on NASA's website. Don't bother looking. They're gone now.
Anyone watching the acceptance speech by John Kerry late on Thursday evening might have noticed that the balloons and confetti blizzard didn't come down on cue as he finished. Only a few of the 100,000 balloons dropped at first, prompting convention producer Don Mischer to gaze upwards in frustration. His subsequent remarks were inadvertently broadcast over CNN television, and are reprinted here in the interest of complete convention coverage.
"Go balloons, go balloons! Go balloons! I don't see anything happening. Go balloons! Go balloons! Go balloons! Standby confetti. Keep coming, balloons. More balloons. Bring it - balloons, balloons, balloons! We want balloons, tons of them. Bring them down. Let them all come. No confetti. No confetti yet.
"No confetti. All right, go balloons, go balloons. We need more balloons. All balloons! All balloons! Keep going! Come on, guys, let's move it. Jesus! We need more balloons. I want all balloons to go, goddammit. Go confetti. Go confetti. More confetti. I want more balloons. What's happening to the balloons? We need more balloons. We need all of them coming down. Go balloons - balloons? What's happening balloons? There's not enough coming down! All balloons, what the hell! There's nothing falling! What the f*** are you guys doing up there? We want more balloons coming down, more balloons. More balloons. More balloons."