Old Guard lifts Dems’ first day Gore reminds Boston delegates of 2000 vote

BOSTON – While Democrats will rest their hopes on the party’s presumptive nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, come November, on Monday they heeded the advice of voices from their past, former President Jimmy Carter and the party’s 2000 nominee, former Vice President Al Gore.

Gore, who was defeated in 2000, addressed the crowd at the Democratic National Convention first. He alternately made light of his stinging loss to George W. Bush, and told delegates he was going to focus on the future, namely electing Kerry.

“The first lesson … is that every vote counts,” Gore told the more than 4,000 cheering delegates who packed into Boston’s FleetCenter on the opening day of the four-day event. “In our a democracy, every vote has power, and never forget that power is yours … and let’s make sure this time that every vote is counted.”

Although he won the popular vote, Gore lost the election by way of a Supreme Court ruling that awarded Bush Florida’s Electoral College votes. Another such result in 2004 would mean dire consequences for the country, he warned.

“Let’s make sure the Supreme Court does not pick the next president, and that this president does not pick the next Supreme Court,” Gore said to wild applause.

Among those cheering was Maine delegate Bruce King of Bradley.

“I’m glad he’s going to focus on putting John Kerry in the White House,” King said from the delegation’s prime seating assignment on the convention floor, where they were sandwiched between the pivotal swing states of New Mexico and Florida.

In focusing on 2004, Gore, in his prime-time speech, reached out to Republicans and those who, in 2000, supported then Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, whom Democrats almost universally blame for costing Gore the White House.

“America faces deep challenges. They are not Democratic challenges or Republican challenges,” Gore said. “They are American challenges that we must all overcome together as one people, one nation.”

To Nader supporters, he asked, “Do you still think there’s no difference between the candidates?”

Carter, who lost the White House to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980, warned delegates that the extremism of the Bush administration – including its “strange strategy of pre-emptive war” – has isolated the country.

“Truth is the foundation of global leadership,” Carter said, a reference to what Democrats call the Bush administration’s questionable reasoning for war with Iraq. “Our credibility has been shattered, and without trust America cannot flourish.”

“We cannot lead if our leaders mislead,” Carter later said.

Set to speak later in the evening was former President Bill Clinton, who despite scandal has become a larger-than-life figure in the party.

Clinton, in a statement earlier Monday, declared himself a “foot soldier” for John Kerry and the Democratic Party. He urged voters to rally against President Bush and a Republican Party that believes in an America “run by the right people – their people.”

Clinton said, “Democrats and Republicans have very different ideas on what choices we should make, rooted in fundamentally different views of how we should meet our common challenges at home, and how we should play our role in the world.”

In a campaign stop in Florida on Monday, Kerry, unlike Gore in 2000, did not go out of his way to distance himself from the twice-elected former president. Kerry praised Clinton for balancing the government’s budget, reducing its debt and creating 23 million new jobs. “I also want to create better jobs,” Kerry said.

Even before Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe called the convention to order Monday afternoon, protesters outside the FleetCenter used a bullhorn to rail against restrictions that limited them to a fenced-in area about a block away from the event.

“This is insane! We’re in a cage!” said one anti-Kerry protester surrounded by two men dressed in giant green and orange flip-flops, a not-so-subtle allusion to the Republican line that Kerry has changed his position on several issues – particularly the war – since hitting the campaign trail.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.