Financial Times backs Kerry

2004-10-25 18:23

London - Britain's respected Financial Times on Monday endorsed John Kerry as the best choice for US president, saying incumbent George W Bush had polarised the world with his radical foreign policy and led a reckless economic policy.

The paper, one of the world's leading financial dailies, called Bush "a polariser, exploiting the war on terror to cow domestic opposition and divide the world into Them and Us."

"Over the past three years, the gap between ambition and reality has created what could be termed a 'Bush bubble'," it said.

During that time since the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States, Bush's "radical, faith-based politics" and his inability to recognise his mistakes had led to a disastrous occupation in Iraq and taken the wrong tack in the war on terrorism, it charged.

"Mr Bush's flaw is his stubborn reluctance to admit mistakes and to adjust personnel and policy. Blind faith in military power as a tool for change has too often influenced decision-making," it said.

"The US needs allies in the struggle against terrorism but Mr Bush's crusading moralism has alienated the rest of the world, and a large constituency at home already fearful of the religious right."

Kerry has much to prove

But the paper cautioned that Kerry, the Democratic senator, "still has much to prove" on domestic policy and lacks pizzazz, but values international alliances and can recognise his mistakes.

"He owes his rise more to opposition to Mr Bush than loyalty to his own cause. But on balance, he is the better, safer choice," it said.

Moreover, it said, Kerry would return a sound fiscal policy to Washington, instead of Bush's short-term economic fix in the form of tax cuts and low federal interest rates, it went on.

"A President Kerry would probably revert to the fiscal responsibility of the Clinton years... Coupled with the need for international economic policy co-operation... this could be a recipe for success," judged the financial daily.

The world's other influential financial pages have not issued direct endorsements, but the Wall Street Journal is regularly critical of Kerry. The Economist weekly issues its endorsement for the November 2 US vote in its edition out this Friday.

- SAPA