How should John Kerry talk about values?

Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Boston College

When John Kerry responds to the efforts by Republicans to bring "values" into the campaign by insisting that healthcare and having a job are values, he is right but ineffective. For better or worse, "values" has become a code word for issues of character and morality. Kerry should not relinquish that "values" ground to the Republicans.

Instead, Kerry should insist on the importance of one aspect of character that is especially appropriate to politicians: taking responsibility for one's acts. The way the Bush-Cheney team has adopted the morality of the 1960s -- against which they so frequently rail -- perfectly embodies what Christopher Lasch called the culture of narcissism. Like yuppies backing their machines into parking spaces meant for two cars, they insist that breaking old-fashioned rules of morality is fine, as long as it makes you feel good. Straitlaced Kerry, who fairly drips with a sense of duty, should nail them for it.

It is not, of course, the vice president's use of the F-word that constitutes the most blatant neglect of responsibility in Washington these days. George W. Bush is no Harry Truman. A president for whom the buck never stops is not just a person of bad character; he is also rendered untrustworthy as a leader. What kind of morality is it, Kerry should ask, in which a leader not only fails to take responsibility for his own actions but also avoids having the high officials who work for him do so? Kerry should declare that a president should be not only a political leader but also a moral leader, one who upholds the highest standards of morality by the way he conducts himself in office. Kerry should say a president should not be a model for passing blame onto others.

This administration, so strongly supported by the remnants of what used to be called the moral majority, is one of the most immoral of recent times. Its values are ones that no good-thinking American should emulate. Kerry should say that and say it strongly.

Jorge Ramos, journalist and anchorman for Noticiero Univision, the largest Spanish-language evening news program in America

Typically, about 70 percent of Latinos tend to vote for the Democratic Party and 30 percent for the Republican Party. However, in this election, the Latino vote is up for grabs. The Republican Party has realized that many Latinos hold traditional views on family, divorce and abortion, even though Latinos side with the Democrats when it comes to issues such as bilingual education, immigration, America's relationship with Latin America, and affirmative action.

The Republican Party is trying to woo the Hispanic vote by appealing to these traditional values, and this creates an enormous challenge to the Democrats. The first thing the Democrats can do to better reach Hispanic voters is to emphasize that John Kerry is a Catholic: 80 percent of Latinos are Catholic.

The second key issue for the Democrats is family. Latinos believe that families in Latin America are stronger than in the United States, and that values are stronger in Latin America than in the United States. So if Democrats want to woo the Hispanic vote, they should emphasize Kerry's family and his family members. This is a strategy that President Bush used when he was running in 2000; he campaigned with many of his family members to try to get the Hispanic vote.

Another important thing to recognize is that many Latinos were expecting Gov. Bill Richardson from New Mexico to be chosen as the vice presidential candidate. But Democrats should emphasize two things about John Edwards: First, that he's very young. Hispanic voters are very young -- 10 years younger than the average voter. And second, they should emphasize John Edwards' personal rags-to-riches story, which is very appealing to many Hispanic immigrants.

I think Democrats have learned their lesson from 2000. They're emphasizing Kerry's Catholic background, and they're recognizing the importance of family and getting Teresa Heinz, who speaks Spanish fluently, more involved in the campaign. Even though Latinos don't say it's a deciding factor whether a candidate speaks Spanish or not, the majority of Latinos appreciate it when candidates try to speak Spanish -- it's a way to recognize their background and their ethnicity.

Danny Goldberg, author of "Dispatches From the Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Teen Spirit"

John Kerry says, "We're all in the same boat." If most Americans come to believe that he really means it, he will win. Kerry needs to convince both religious families and Howard Stern fans that his vision of America respects and includes them.

President Bush's mean-spirited administration has lost him any hope of being perceived as a "uniter not a divider." The political reality that made that line so popular in focus groups should inform Kerry's style. Part of Ronald Reagan's majoritarian charm was his ability to firmly disagree without seeming disagreeable.

The stem cell research issue is a prime example of the distinction between Kerry's mainstream values and the irrational extremism that Bush has shown.

In the past, Democrats have tried to compete with Republicans by mentioning the word "family" as much as possible. They should continue to stress that Democratic policies are better for families. However, Kerry must also reach out to single Americans. According to a recent Pew poll, Bush is 10 points up among married women (a little more than half of all women), while Kerry is a stunning 34 points up among single women. Aggregately single women are 24 percent of electorate (there are lots of single men too) -- but married people are more likely to vote. This is the moment to increase their turnout.

There is no need to pander. Mentioning and humanizing single people and young people, occasionally letting them know that they as well as "families" have seats on the American "boat" will be a novelty in the context of recent political rhetoric and will pay political dividends.

And the Kerry campaign should keep showing that photo of the young Kerry and John Lennon. Everyone between 40 and 60 years old wants to be on the same boat as the Beatles.

Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches

My sense is that John Kerry is nervous about the Roman Catholics on the one hand, and he is uncomfortable because I think he puts all Protestants in the Jerry Falwell, Franklin Graham camp. He doesn't differentiate as much as he needs to between the conservatives and those of us who are moderate to progressive in our views, and who find God not to be a God of war as much as a God who cares about what we've done "unto the least of these," our brothers and sisters.

Instead of speaking from a podium, John Kerry needs to spend more time having face-to-face experiences when he lands in a city. For example, if he's going to talk about the need to care for the poor and provide healthcare, visiting a health clinic in each of the cities he visits for a week would get his message out that he cares about providing full-access healthcare, particularly for those who are at the lowest end of the economic scale. There are 9 million children who have no healthcare, and clearly the Democrats care about that. Doing this type of meet-and-greet opportunity, rather than giving long speeches on the subject, would be helpful.

The American faith community, particularly moderate to progressive Christians, want to see the gospel message lived out in the candidates. John Edwards seems a little more comfortable than Kerry doing that, but I think Kerry can learn how to do it. I have to add, though, that neither party has an edge on virtue or morality, and neither party should ever think that it's genetically right on all of its value questions. It's the nonverbal sermons that I think will work for both Kerry and for Bush.

Alan Brinkley, professor of American history at Columbia University; author of "The End of Reform"

Given the aggressive use of "values" as a tool of Republican campaigns, it was probably inevitable that John Kerry (or any other Democratic candidate) would have to reply in kind. But a debate on values is not one in which Democrats are likely to do well. Republicans have used the idea of "values" -- family values, religious values, conservative values -- as a substitute for engagement with real issues. They have done so as part of a successful effort to divert voters away from a rational assessment of their own interests and toward a preoccupation with a cluster of cultural stances and prejudices that have no legitimate place in political debate.

Kerry has made an admirable effort to co-opt the term "values" and use it as a label for his position on issues that have real meaning -- taxes, social programs, foreign policy, the war in Iraq. But spending too much time presenting these important issues as "values" risks confusing voters and weakening the claims of Kerry's actual positions.

If Kerry wants to speak about values, he should use the term not to describe concrete issues but to describe actual moral stances that contrast him favorably with his opponent. Such values would include honesty, hard work, tolerance, fairness, respect for other cultures and religions. Kerry's emphasis on inclusiveness is perhaps his best description of a value so far and reminds us of the Democratic Party's strong claim to the allegiance of an increasingly diverse population.

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