Posted on: Thursday, March 4, 2004

EDITORIAL
Presidential battle set: Let's get into the issues

For all intents and purposes, the general election presidential battle has been joined: It's Democrat John Kerry against incumbent Republican George Bush.

While it is impossible to say for sure what issues will dominate the campaign, there are several broad areas that obviously will be paramount.

The first is the economy, which includes both the rebound of the stock market and a continuing and disturbing lack of job growth.

The second is foreign affairs, normally not a major factor in presidential elections but sure to be this year with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and past and future involvements such as Bosnia and Haiti.

We will watch this campaign, and the debates to come, with interest. We hope for a campaign that will deal with serious issues and avoid the gamesmanship and attack ads that have come to dominate far too much of politics.

Bush set the right tone the other day with an unexpected congratulatory call to Kerry.

There are some issues we hope will not dominate the campaign, including same- sex marriage and abortion. These are "trap" issues designed not to resolve public policy, but to get a candidate on the wrong side of a considerable bloc of voters.

We do want to hear focused debate on the economy, which would include our soaring and dangerous national debt. Is there something Bush can say about the debt more substantive than the hope that an improving economy will erase it?

And what about Kerry's ideas for shoring up Social Security and Medicare? How will he pay for these ambitious plans?

On foreign policy, we want to hear discussion of America's long-term future for its relationship with the rest of the world. Bush campaigned in 2000 on a platform that stressed a "humble" non-interventionist foreign policy. That's not how it turned out.

What are his long-term plans now?

Kerry, who has considerable foreign policy experience, still needs to flesh out where he stands in the post-Sept. 11 world. He voted once for war in Iraq and once against it. What is his underlying vision?

There is, of course, much more than this. But because the contest was set so early, we will now have the luxury of a stretched-out campaign that should leave plenty of time to get beyond flag-waving and sound bites and into the meat of the issues.