EVERETT – Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., rallied the Democratic troops in a speech to supporters of presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in Everett on Sunday.
Cleland, a triple-amputee Vietnam veteran, spoke passionately for his friend Kerry and against the policies of President Bush to a vocal crowd of about 200 people in a large meeting room at the Everett Transit Station.
“I’m Max Cleland, and I’m reporting for duty,” he said to big cheers, borrowing the opening line from Kerry’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in July.
Cleland came to Everett as part of a campaign swing through the Northwest that earlier took him to Oregon, Vancouver, Wash., and Tacoma.
Cleland was introduced by U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens.
Cleland said he was last in Everett four years ago to campaign for Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell. He pointed out that she won by 1,200 votes.
“The Kerry campaign is doing very well here, but please take nothing for granted,” Cleland said. On election night, “I want to see the Pacific Northwest make John Kerry the next president of the United States,” he said to raucous cheers.
Cleland invoked the name of the late Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson, the longtime U.S. senator from Everett.
“You can be strong in defending this country and positively progressive in your economic and social agenda,” he said, using Jackson as an example. “You don’t have to be a right-wing nut to defend this country.”
Cleland repeatedly assailed President Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq.
“That is Vietnam all over again, except maybe in this case, it’s worse,” because if Iraq cannot be stabilized it could have implications throughout the Middle East and in the war on terror, he said.
Perhaps the biggest cheer of the night came when Cleland criticized Bush for not apologizing for intelligence failures involved in the decision to go to war.
“At least Tony Blair had the guts to apologize to the British people. This president hasn’t apologized, and we’re going to beat him on Nov. 2,” Cleland said.
Cleland also attacked Bush’s domestic policy, calling it “voodoo economics on steroids.”
The crowd, which included a number of people with shirts or hats that identified them as veterans, came from among the ranks of known Kerry supporters who were invited by e-mail, said Kim Maynard of the Kerry campaign.
Cleland took questions and comments from the audience on a variety of subjects.
Bob Crosby, a member of an Everett-based Naval reserve unit, said he spent six months in Kuwait.
“I don’t want to go dancing with him anymore,” he said of President Bush.
Vietnam veteran Mike Carter of Everett was impressed with Cleland’s talk.
‘He’s a great speaker,” he said. “He did a fabulous job.”
“Very inspirational,” said Susan Peterson of Snohomish. “It was an honor to meet him – he’s sacrificed a lot for this country.”
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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