John Kerry

ICAME home from a Memorial Day parade and dedication of the new WWII memorial in Downingtown and and turned on the news. What do I see? John Kerry laying a wreath at the foot of the Vietnam memorial. What a disgrace and a slap in the face to all Vietnam vets. To elect this man as our president would be the beginning of the end of America as we know it. Wake up, America. Do not elect John Kerry as our next president! Don Davies Downingtown

SINCE THE Daily News has so vigorously endorsed John Kerry for president, I'd like to ask five questions. 1. If John Kerry is such a war hero, why do only two of his 23 fellow swiftboat commanders endorse him? 2. Kerry served four months in Vietnam. He has served 20 years in the Senate. What significant piece of legislation has John Kerry given us? 3. What EXACTLY is John Kerry's plan to fight terror? Saying he will get our allies back in line is not enough. The rest of the world has proven that they don't share our courage.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee who endured the original "Swift Boat" attacks, Sunday defended Sen. Arlen Specter, who has been accused of smearing his opponent's Navy career in Pennsylvania's Democratic Senate primary. Rep. Joe Sestak is running TV ads that accuse Specter of "lying" after quoting in his own campaign commercial news reports that Sestak was fired from a top Pentagon job in 2005 for creating a "poor command climate. " Sestak accuses Specter of "swiftboating" him. The issue has been one of the dominant themes of the bitter Senate contest now entering its last full week.

IN THE FIVE months since the Daily News became the first newspaper to endorse John Kerry for president, we have become even more confident in our choice. President Bush has shown his disconnection from, and contempt for, the reality caused by his disastrous leadership. Kerry has shown himself to be smart, strong, and possessed of workable plans to get this nation back on the right track. We urge you to vote for John Kerry tomorrow - and, if possible, to volunteer your time and skill to get others out to vote.

When documentary filmmaker George Butler met John Kerry in 1964, he had a vision that the lanky chairman of Yale's political union would one day become president of the United States. Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry is Butler's 11th-hour shot at pushing his buddy over the top, a journey into the jungle that turned the Democratic nominee from earnest Swift Boat skipper into the disillusioned spokesman for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Butler has said that not since Teddy Roosevelt has there been an American political figure with a personal story as compelling as Kerry's.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee who endured the original "Swift Boat" attacks, Sunday defended Sen. Arlen Specter, who has been accused of smearing his opponent's Navy career in Pennsylvania's Democratic Senate primary. Rep. Joe Sestak is running TV ads that accuse Specter of "lying" after quoting in his own campaign commercial news reports that Sestak was fired from a top Pentagon job in 2005 for creating a "poor command climate. " Sestak accuses Specter of "swiftboating" him. The issue has been one of the dominant themes of the bitter Senate contest now entering its last full week.

I'M AFRAID that George Bush has left us with no recourse but to finally say to him: "You can run, but you can't hide. " Mr. Bush has now made the maligning of John Kerry's 20-year record in Congress a central part of his attack. This is a record that includes fighting for the kinds of taxes that helped level the disparity between the upper and middle classes while creating a strong economy - with a budget surplus. Far from being weak on defense, Mr. Kerry was one of the first to alert the nation to the threat of global terror.

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian Authority president has told advisers that as the United States tries to restart Mideast peace talks, he is under intense international pressure to return to negotiations with Israel and drop demands for a Jewish settlement freeze in the West Bank, officials said Wednesday. In a closed meeting, Mahmoud Abbas lamented his difficult choice: Rebuff the Americans and alienate Washington, or cave in and face an uproar at home. Aides say Abbas expects a formal proposal to renew talks from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in coming weeks.

YOU CAN put a fork in John Kerry. And I didn't need the Time and Newsweek polls showing W with a double-digit convention bounce to tell me so. I knew it the moment I walked out of Madison Square Garden last Thursday night. Barring the unforeseen, he's got this thing won. You may be thinking I had too many Manhattans in Manhattan. (I did.) But one week later, and without confetti pasted to my dome, I still think it's over. It hit me when the president delivered one particular line, halfway into his acceptance speech: "This election will also determine how America responds to the continuing danger of terrorism - and you know where I stand.

BOSTON - Fearful of another surprise Republican victory, Democrats are pouring money into the Massachusetts Senate race to succeed John Kerry and dispatching President Obama to the state to rally party loyalists two weeks before the election. Republicans are watching closely to see if the contest tightens enough to justify spending big on TV ads to try to repeat the shocker of 2010 when the GOP unexpectedly seized a seat long in Democratic hands. Until now, the special election set for June 25 has garnered little attention inside Massachusetts after the marathon bombings, much less outside the state.

WASHINGTON - Israel cannot afford to wait to make peace with its Arab neighbors, Secretary of State John Kerry argued Monday, saying that demographic forces and rising militancy are working against America's top ally in the region. "What happens in the coming days will actually dictate what happens in the coming decades," Kerry said, referring to whether Israeli and Palestinian leaders will try again to broker peace. "We are running out of time," he said in remarks to the American Jewish Committee.

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian Authority president has told advisers that as the United States tries to restart Mideast peace talks, he is under intense international pressure to return to negotiations with Israel and drop demands for a Jewish settlement freeze in the West Bank, officials said Wednesday. In a closed meeting, Mahmoud Abbas lamented his difficult choice: Rebuff the Americans and alienate Washington, or cave in and face an uproar at home. Aides say Abbas expects a formal proposal to renew talks from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in coming weeks.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Visiting sub-Saharan Africa for the first time since taking office, Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday remained focused largely on the Middle East, particularly Egypt, whose cratering economy and political problems are dimming hopes it can play a major role in fostering any new peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. Kerry sandwiched a day of celebratory meetings at the African Union's 50th anniversary summit in Ethiopia between peacemaking efforts in Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan.

Last week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad demonstrated his utter disdain for U.S. efforts to launch Syrian peace talks next month in Geneva. Even as Secretary of State John Kerry was roaming the region seeking Arab backing for talks, the Syrian regime reportedly launched a chemical weapon against civilians in a northeastern Damascus suburb. The fourth such episode, this one sent at least 50 victims to the hospital with bronchial and muscle spasms. Assad once more thumbed his nose at President Obama's "red lines" with impunity, while insisting he will run in "elections" in 2014.

An agreement with Russia to renew efforts to negotiate peace in Syria bolsters President Obama's argument that now is not the time for a U.S. military role in the conflict. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Tuesday in Moscow that an international summit would be held as early as this month to revive a plan that would effectively end Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rule. The announcement blunts the hawks' harsh criticism of Obama for backing away from his hasty declaration eight months ago that any use of chemical weapons by Assad would cross a "red line," leading to "enormous consequences.

BOSTON - Businessman and former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez and veteran U.S. Rep. Edward Markey will face each other in a special election for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by John Kerry. In primaries on Tuesday, Markey won the Democratic nomination and Gomez won the Republican nod, according to unofficial returns. Markey defeated fellow U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch. Gomez won a three-way primary against former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and State Rep. Daniel Winslow. Markey has served in the U.S. House since 1976 and is the dean of the state's congressional delegation.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Wrapping up a 24-hour visit to Istanbul, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday sought to cement and speed up an improvement in relations between Turkey and Israel as well as explore new ways to relaunch Mideast peace efforts. President Obama has made both issues foreign policy priorities for his second term and Kerry was pushing them in meetings with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. On a trip to Israel last month, Obama secured a pledge from Turkish and Israeli leaders to normalize ties that broke down after a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed eight Turks and a Turkish American.

TOKYO - The United States and Japan opened the door Sunday to new nuclear talks if North Korea lowered tensions and honored past agreements, even as the saber-rattling government rejected South Korea's latest offer of dialogue as a "crafty trick. " U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Tokyo that North Korea would find "ready partners" in the United States if it began abandoning its nuclear program. Japan's foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, also demanded a resolution to a dispute concerning Japanese citizens abducted decades ago by North Korean officials.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is expected to give Syrian rebels broader nonlethal military assistance, including body armor and night-vision goggles, while stopping short of providing weapons to forces fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The timing and scope of the stepped-up aid package is unclear. President Obama has not given final approval, and an announcement is not imminent, said a senior administration official, who requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the internal deliberations.