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Article: Vision quest: how John Kerry can create jobs by taking on K Street.
- Article from:
- The Washington Monthly
- Article date:
- April 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Washington Monthly Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Listen to a speech by John Kerry, and you're likely to hear him vow to take on "Big Oil" and other "powerful interests that stand in your way." This is the signature language of his chief campaign consultant, Robert Shrum, who penned similar populist rhetoric for Al Gore in 2000. Democratic rhetoric of this sort has tended to vilify the rich as a class and corporations in general, but failed to get much traction with voters, for the simple reason that most Americans work for corporations and would like someday to be rich.
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Listen a little closer, however, and you may pick up a subtle but important difference in the Shrumian phraseology this ...