Dems, GOP spin pluses of debate

BANGOR – A former U.S. ambassador under President Clinton maintained Friday that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John F. Kerry definitely held the upper hand in his first debate Thursday against President Bush.

Meanwhile, General Joseph Tinkham, retired Adjutant General of Maine and Homeland Security adviser to Govs. Angus King and John Baldacci, insisted President Bush had, instead, presented “a clearer vision” of the United States’ role in global affairs.

Maine pollsters generally agreed Friday that Kerry had delivered an above average performance during the Florida debate, but also said that neither candidate had probably done much to attract undecided voters.

“I think we’ll have to wait until after the next debate on domestic issues to see if the undecideds have moved,” said MaryEllen FitzGerald of Critical Insights in Portland.

Democrats held rallies in three Maine cities Friday touting Kerry’s performance at the University of Miami on Thursday evening. In Bangor, Jack McKay of the Greater Bangor Central Labor Council joined other union officials in asserting President Bush was no friend of the working man and a chief executive who provided tax breaks for companies that shipped Maine jobs overseas.

John Shattuck, the current CEO for the JFK Library Foundation in Boston and a former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2000, was the featured speaker Friday at Bangor’s Davenport Park.

Shattuck said Kerry showed the American people he would be a world leader who would not flinch and was clearly up to the task of taking the reins of the world’s most powerful democracy.

“All Americans had the opportunity to see John Kerry standing on the edge of greatness, seeing him as our commander-in-chief and as our next president,” Shattuck said. “He showed strength and conviction and a steady command of the facts.”

Shattuck said the defining moment in the 90-minute debate arrived when President Bush casually remarked that the United States had gone to war because the country had been attacked by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“Sen. Kerry reflected the facts and corrected him by saying, ‘No, we went to war because you wanted to and we were attacked by Osama bin Laden,'” Shattuck said. “That meant we should have taken the war to Osama bin Laden, but we have been diverted severely by what we have done in Iraq.”

Shattuck said Kerry has a clear plan to combat terrorism and convinced Americans that, unlike President Bush’s “go-it-alone” doctrine, the Democratic candidate would consult with the United States’ traditional allies around the world as president.

“He will rebuild our alliances above all,” Shattuck said. “As a former ambassador, I can tell you how important those alliances are. I helped countries previously behind the Iron Curtain enter one of the greatest alliances for Democracy: NATO. President Bush has basically turned his back on NATO.”

Prominent Maine Republicans such as Sen. Susan M. Collins disagreed with Democratic critics on the perception President Bush left on more than 62 million debate watchers across the country.

“President Bush clearly and decisively set forth his vision for America,” Collins said in a prepared statement Friday. “He left no doubt about where he stands and showed why he is the right person to lead America for the next four years.”

Gen. Tinkham said President Bush showed America and the world Thursday night that he has the “strength, resolve and steady leadership these changing times demand of our nation’s president.”

“Also, once again, John Kerry failed to establish the clear and consistent vision necessary to establish credibility with the American people who wish to know where he would lead our nation in the global war on terror,” Tinkham said. “Sen. Kerry, missing yet another opportunity to connect with Americans looking for answers, relied instead on false attacks to make his case.”