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“All the things Bush is weak on, my dad is strong on,” said Vanessa Kerry, daughter of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry.
Kerry, a 26-year-old Harvard medical student, held a question and answer session concerning her father’s policies last Monday with the Pepperdine community. Kerry has taken the year off of school to assist with her father’s campaign.
Malibu Mayor Ken Kearsley came out to introduce Kerry in the Hahn Fireside room. The event itself was sponsored by Pepperdine’s Young Democrats, which is a group of students interested in the Democratic Party. The club brought Kerry in to make the campus less apolitical and bring in a new voice, said Allison Bybee, executive secretary of Young Democrats.
Kerry discussed her father’s policies, her personal experiences and her beliefs on what is wrong with the current administration.
“His idealism resonates with our idealism,” Kerry said of her father.
Although her dad has experienced a lot of things, from being a Vietnam War veteran and a senator, he has been able to maintain his optimism, Kerry said.
As someone who has seen a lot of the world as well and is involved in international health in medical school, Kerry said she has learned of some of the problems of international health care while traveling abroad. One of her main concerns is U.S. international relations. Because of this, she is determined to help out her dad with his campaign.
Kerry said going to war in Iraq destroyed 40 years of foreign diplomacy.
“We are the leader of free world,” said Kerry. This means opportunity should equal responsibility, she said, and that the United States needs to be responsible. She stressed the importance of reaching out to countries to show that America cares about poverty. Isolationism doesn’t work in a world that is becoming closer, she said, and that her dad wants to reinvest in these countries to show them the United States cares.
“It doesn’t make sense what is happening under this administration,” Kerry said.
One of the many questions posed by those in attendance concerned Ralph Nadar’s entrance into the presidential race. Kerry said she doesn’t believe it will change anything.
“People want Bush out of office bad so the Democrats will unite together,” Kerry said.
Politics isn’t the only thing Sen. Kerry enjoys.
“He’s whooping and hollering and having the time of his life,” said Kerry in reference to her father’s hobby of kite surfing.
He also windsurfs, rides motorcycles, plays the guitar and, at the age of 55, took up snowboarding, she said.
Sen. Kerry wants to be accessible, the younger Kerry said. He encourages people to get in touch with the office – he will set a minimum number of press conferences he will have each month and possibly do more, she said.
“For him, it is about our stories. So there has to be a way to keep on hearing them,” Kerry said.
The session didn’t just bring in members of the Young Democrats club.
Freshman John Deniston said, “I’m here to see all sides of the political spectrum.”
Sen. Kerry’s campaign thrives off of college students, said his daughter. She pleaded for the students to be politically active.
“You don’t know where you’ll be in four years, but you want to know you’ll get ahead,” Kerry said.
The single vote matters, she said, and individual citizens are responsible. It’s just as simple as students wearing a political button and talking to their friends about potential candidates, she continnued. Students can make voting “hip, sexy and cool again.”
Bybee said she was impressed with Kerry’s presentation.
“I felt she was informative and gave really good insight into the life of a presidential candidate,” she said.
The presidential race will be tough but John Kerry is a fighter, his daughter said assuringly.
Submitted February 26, 2004
MALIBU, CA
