Former Boston Mayor questions Democratic party motives
By: Steve Sawyer | Source: IRN News
July 29, 2004 2:24PM EST

Three-term mayor of Boston and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Ray Flinn has been following the progress of the Democratic National Convention at the Fleet Center in Boston Massachusetts. Commenting on Democratic Senator John Edwards' acceptance speech last night, Flynn says that while the speech was great in terms of attempting to unite the party, it fails to address the fact that most of the so called "party elites" in the DNC are opposed to the vary issues Edwards tried to address. Flynn notes that there's a feeling among many voters that neither Republicans nor Democrats are reaching out to working class people - and that's what Edwards was trying to do in his "One America" speech on the convention floor... reach out. "The problem is", says Flynn, "is how he's able to deal with the party, the hierarchy. There's a real disconnect, between those delegates at the convention, and the values and the principals of, of America, middle America out there. And, even on many of these cultural issues. Probably 3 percent of the people at the national convention, the hierarchy of the Democratic party support the president on the war in Iraq... They certainly aren't pro-life, they're against traditional marriage, those kinds of issues." Flynn continues, "But the people are in favor of those issues, you know they support the president, they support those traditional values. So, how does Kerry and Edwards, now, separate themselves from the hierarchy and the delegates and the mainstream Democratic party? It's a very difficult - disconnect. It's true, its almost like a makeover convention to try to become a new candidate, a new party, with a new policy, when they've got records going back many, many years - and they've got a party platform...". Tonight, John Kerry will take to the podium and accept his party's official nomination as a candidate for president of the United States. Flinn says one of the main themes of Kerry's speech will involve his Vietnam war record and will include stories of heroism, and talks about his so-called 'band of brothers' - boat captains from Kerry's days in the U.S. Navy. We brought up what could be a sensitive issue with the former mayor, after he mentioned the boat captains with us. The question we posed to Mr. Flynn was, 'Since you mentioned Kerry's crossing Boston Harbor on Wednesday with several 'boat captains' , playing up John Kerry's war record... What is the difference between those dozen or so "boat captain's", and the 200 or so other boat captains who have signed a document stating that they do not believe John Kerry is fit to be commander in cheif? Flynn's response: "That's a good question. I don't know whether or not these people who have the petition are getting the kind of petition.... but it's very clear, yesterday, John Kerry came into Boston on a ship, and he had these "band of brothers" with him, and it got an extraordinary amount of attention. All the national - world media was there. They're going across the city, doing interviews, so, I mean, its the main story on every television set. You know, if you have the support of the media, you basically can re-define yourself, you can re-define the message. If you don't have the media you're basically talking to yourself." Perhaps it's time the 'Other' so-called boat captains' stories saw the light of day.

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