'It's The War, Stupid!'

A few thousand protesters, marching through Boston under heavy security on Sunday -- the day before the opening of the Democratic National Convention -- might seem to be walking on the margins of the 2004 campaign. But what united and divided the crowd that made its way from Boston Common to the FleetCenter -- estimated by authorities at 2,500 -- might end up being central to John Kerry's effort to channel displeasure with the Bush administration into votes, and even votes in swing states like Maine and New Hampshire. As one sign put it, "Kerry: It's The War, Stupid!"  "I'm here because I'm against the war," said Frank Lavine, an 80-year-old World War II veteran from Boston. "Because war is a racket." "It's ridiculous," said Pat Galloway of Maine. "We were lied to. We were manipulated into going into war." Despite the war's importance as a campaign issue and a policy matter, the Democratic platform does not take a position on whether the 2003 invasion was justified.[more]

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