Prominent widows of the September 11 2001 terror attacks endorsed John Kerry’s run for the presidency on Tuesday, accusing President George Bush of betrayal and of leading the country into a state of permanent war.
”The truth is, after watching the Republican convention in New York, I am scared. I am scared of the mentality,” said Kirsten Breitweiser, the most celebrated of the self-styled Jersey Girls, four widows who led a dogged campaign to force the Bush administration to establish an independent investigation into the attacks.
Tuesday’s endorsement by five women who lost their husbands in the World Trade Centre, and a survivor of the attack on the Pentagon, was designed to reassure a doubting US public that Kerry could be relied on to keep the country safe.
Breitweiser’s defection — she voted for Bush in the 2000 elections — presents a symbolically important counter-argument to the Republican campaign’s appropriation of the war on terror as an election prop.
Bush has made national security and bold leadership the centrepiece of his election campaign, and it was centre stage at the Republican convention, where speakers and hi-tech imagery conflated the attacks on the World Trade Centre with the war on Iraq.
As the widows described it on Tuesday, that display of pageantry was the final straw, convincing them to go to Kerry and offer their support. Their reasons were manifold: anger at the war on Iraq, which they view as a diversion from the hunt for al-Qaeda, an abiding sense of frustration with an administration they accuse of obstructing the investigation into the intelligence failings that led to the 2001 attacks, and fear of another attack.
”It has been a painful process to accept that President Bush failed us,” said Patty Casazza, another of the Jersey Girls, and like Breitweiser, a former Republican voter.
Democratic strategists say the endorsements could help Kerry’s attempts to reduce the 20-point advantage Bush enjoys on terrorism. They also hope that it will stem the erosion of another crucial constituency for Kerry: women voters.
A Time magazine poll this week revealed a reversal in the traditional gender gap, with women now favouring Bush over Kerry by 45% to 44%. Pollsters attribute the shift to ”security mums”, women who set aside their reservations about the president’s conservative agenda because of their concern for their family’s safety.
It is hoped that some will be won back by Breitweiser, a homemaker who has amply demonstrated her political savvy and talent for publicity during the last three years.
On Capitol Hill, where the widows were dogged in their pursuit of an independent investigation into the tragedy, Breitweiser is famous for bringing her dead husband’s wedding ring along when she talked to politicians. Members of Congress have found it difficult to resist the widow’s pleas — first for an investigation into the attacks, and now for a sweeping overhaul of the intelligence services.
But the potential risks of using the 9-11 attacks in the election campaign are inescapable.
Although President Bush has made the war on terror the centrepiece of his campaign, and the vice-president, Dick Cheney, went so far last week as to warn that Americans faced another terrorist attack if they elected Kerry, the widows’ endorsement could rebound on the Democratic presidential candidate.
As Democrats and Republicans have used the imagery of September 11 — and both parties brought relatives of the dead on stage at their conventions — the attacks have become an increasingly divisive issue in America.
Until Tuesday, Breitweiser and the other widows claimed to use their moral authority on behalf of all Americans. However, they have become strongly identified as critics of the Bush administration. They have been targeted by conservative commentators who call them ”rock stars of grief”.
Earlier this year, they were savaged by conservative commentators for criticising Bush’s use of imagery from the rubble of the World Trade Centre during his re-election campaign. – Guardian Unlimited Â