Bring it on: the battle for the White House begins - Biography

0 Comments | Current Events, April 2, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Democratic tribe has spoken! On March 2, Democratic candidate Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts cleaned up, sweeping 9 of 10 states voting on Super Tuesday. (It's called super because so many states hold primaries and caucuses that day.)

It's easier to name the states that Kerry hash't won this primary season than it is to list the ones he has. Vermont went to Howard Dean, the former governor of that state. North Carolina Sen. John Edwards took home South Carolina, where he was born. And retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark did OK hi Oklahoma, taking that state with 30 percent of the vote. That's it; all the other states are in Kerry's bag. At press time, Kerry had 2,162 delegates--the exact number needed to clinch his party's nomination for president.

As Kerry's delegate count climbed, most of the Democratic contenders bowed out. At press time, the only Dems still on the ticket were Dennis Kucinich, U.S. representative from Ohio, and New York political activist Al Sharpton.

On Super Tuesday, Kerry greeted cheering supporters gathered along Washington D.C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue about a mile from the White House, the house Kerry hopes to call home soon. Amid supporters' chants and cheers, Kerry exclaimed: "We can and we will win this election.... Change is coming to America."

The Man from Massachusetts

Who is this man that Democrats are so eager to see in the White House?

John Forbes Kerry was born on December 11, 1943, in a military hospital in Denver, Colo., where his father, a World War II fighter pilot, was recovering from a bout with tuberculosis. Shortly thereafter, the Kerry clan returned home to Massachusetts. They didn't stay put for long, however. Kerry's dad joined the Foreign Service as a diplomat and the family moved to Europe, where the young Kerry attended an elite Swiss boarding school. Kerry then attended an exclusive private high school in New Hampshire before enrolling at Yale University, where he was a member of the highly select and secretive Skull and Bones society. Two years later, Yale freshman George W. Bush would also become a "Bonesman."

After school, Kerry joined the U.S. Navy, volunteering for service in the Vietnam War (1964-1973). His tour of duty earned him a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for bravery, as well as three awards of the Purple Heart, for wounds suffered during combat.

Kerry returned from Vietnam in 1969 disillusioned with the war. He became a vocal antiwar protester, cofounding the Vietnam Veterans of America and speaking for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

In 1976, Kerry graduated from Boston College Law School. In the following years, he served as an assistant district attorney in Middlesex County, Mass. In 1982, Kerry began his political career as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. In 1984, he was elected U.S. senator, a post he's held ever since. He is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune. Kerry has two daughters from a previous marriage.

The Man to Beat

To make it to the White House, Kerry must oust the guy who already makes his home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the incumbent president, George W. Bush.

Of course, the president had visited the White House many times before being elected to that office. His father, George H.W. Bush, served as president from 1989 to 1993. Disliking the moniker "junior," the younger George prefers the nickname "W" to distinguish himself from his father.

W was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Conn. The Bush family soon moved to Texas, where Bush senior went to work in the oil industry. Young George spent his high-school years at the prestigious Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. He went on to study at Yale University, which his father had attended 20 years earlier.

Upon graduation, W served as an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. After his discharge in 1973, Bush enrolled in Harvard Business School, where he earned a master's degree in business administration. Bush then headed back to Midland, Texas, to find his fortune in the oil fields. Bush made his first bid for office in a 1978 congressional race. He lost to the incumbent and returned to his oil business, which soon floundered because of a plunge in oil prices. Harken Oil & Gas, a large oil company, purchased Bush's business and placed W on its board of directors.

After working on his father's successful 1988 presidential campaign, W assembled a group of partners to purchase the Texas Rangers baseball team in 1989. He served as the team's general manager for several years before being elected governor of Texas on November 8, 1994. He became the Lone Star State's first governor to be elected to two consecutive terms when he was reelected in 1998, with 68.6 percent of the vote.

President Bush is married to Laura Welch Bush, a former teacher and librarian, and they have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna.

Who's It Going to Be?

Though both Kerry and Bush have had upper-crust upbringings, the two candidates are very different politically. If elected, Kerry claims he'll repeal Bush's tax cuts, cut the federal deficit in half, and rebuild international alliances in the war on terror.