America can do better, Kerry says

[papau]

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/07/30/loc_kerry30.html

America can do better, Kerry says

Nominee vows return to '90s prosperity

(Sen. John Kerry opened his speech Thursday by saluting and saying "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty."The Associated Press/STEPHEN SAVOIA)

By David Espo The Associated Press
BOSTON - Sen. John Kerry challenged President Bush's Iraq policy in blunt, biting terms Thursday night and promised cheering Democratic National Convention delegates, "I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war."

"America can do better, and help is on the way," the Democratic presidential nominee vowed over and over in a prime-time acceptance speech that marked the beginning of the general election phase of his long quest for the White House.

"Saying there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq doesn't make it so," said the four-term Massachusetts senator, a decorated Vietnam War veteran battling an incumbent president in an age of terrorism.

"Saying we can fight a war on the cheap doesn't make it so. And proclaiming mission accomplished certainly doesn't make it so," Kerry told thousands of delegates packed into an overheated, overcrowded FleetCenter. <snip>