Reply #10: See June 6 NYT article re Baton Rouge platform meeting

[goodhue]

No one with a distinct antiwar view testified, and none asked to do so, said the executive director of the platform committee, Peter Choharis.

NATIONAL DESK | June 6, 2004, Sunday
THE 2004 ELECTION: THE PLATFORM; Democrats Seek a Stance on Iraq That Won't Split Party
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM (NYT) 701 words

You have to pay to access it at this point I'm afraid, but it went around various list serves when it came out. (Mods please excuse my slightly exceeding four paragraphs here in order to hit highlights):

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/national/06platform.html

June 6, 2004
THE PLATFORM
Democrats Seek a Stance on Iraq That Won't Split Party
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM

BATON ROUGE, La., June 5 - The Democratic Party took the first, tentative step on Saturday toward writing a platform plank on the war in Iraq that it hopes will distinguish Democrats from the Bush administration without creating the divisions that afflicted the party during and after the Vietnam War.

* * *

"I don't know of any serious person, especially John Kerry, who's advocating cutting and running," Mr. Hart said. "We're going to have to be there for a long time."

* * *

"Vietnam divided our party, and it has continued to divide our party," Mr. Hart said. But Senator Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, "bridges the gap that separated our party in Vietnam more than anyone else I know," he added.

* * *

Democrats this year seem determined to avoid a repeat of the divisions of 1968 and 1972. The witnesses on Saturday, in addition to Mr. Hart, included retired generals, academic authorities on foreign affairs and representatives of veterans organizations.

No one with a distinct antiwar view testified, and none asked to do so, said the executive director of the platform committee, Peter Choharis.

Robert L. Borosage, co-chairman of the Campaign for America's Future and the organizer of a conference of liberal policy advocates in Washington this week, said the people on the party's left were supporting Mr. Kerry fully even if they did not agree with him on Iraq.

"People aren't geared up to have the old, big, divisive fights we used to have," Mr. Borosage said. "Bush so much organizes the left that nobody is paying much attention to Kerry's positions."

Mr. Kerry's position is that Mr. Bush made a mess of Iraq by not having a sound plan and not enlisting more international support. But now that the United States is so heavily involved, Mr. Kerry would keep occupation forces in Iraq indefinitely, increasing the number of troops there in the short term, while reaching out for more assistance from allies.