Kerry sisters claim victory on home front

The war for the White House is being fought on many fronts, and among the battles is that between the Bush twins and the Kerry daughters.

President George Bush and his Democratic challenger John Kerry know the value of family in a political campaign.

And the daughters of both men have vowed to do all they can to help get their fathers elected at the November poll – even if it meant being booed for their unwelcome appeals to young voters at the MTV Music Awards in Miami at the weekend.

The 22-year-old Bush twins, Jenna and Barbara, took to the stage at the Republican national convention early today.

They had a tough act to follow from July’s Democratic convention, when Vanessa and Alexandra Kerry, aged 27 and 30, gave a charming, funny, winning performance.

In contrast, the Bush twins, just out of university, looked uncomfortable as they stood before thousands of delegates in New York City.

Their grandmother Barbara Bush, wife of former US President George Bush senior, forced a smile as the twins complained she was “not very hip”.

“We already know she doesn’t like some of our clothes, our music, or most of the TV shows we watch.

“She thinks Sex and the City is something married people do but never talk about,” Jenna told an audience which barely stirred.

Nervous laughs came from the twins.

Barbara picked up: “Jenna and I are really not very political but we love our dad too much to stand back and watch from the sidelines.”

She tried again: “When your dad’s a Republican and you go to Yale, you learn to stand up for yourself.

“I knew I wasn’t quite ready to be president, but number two sounded pretty good.

“Who is this man they call Dick Cheney?” she asked to some polite chuckles.

Even their attempts to tell of the closeness of the Bush family fell flat.

“You know all those times when you’re growing up and your parents embarrass you? Well, this is payback time on live TV,” said Jenna.

Barbara went on: “Take this. I know it’s hard to believe, but our parents’ favourite term of endearment for each other is actually Bushy.”

It was hardly a show-stopping performance and one political pundit suggested that whoever wrote their speech should be fired.

It was a far cry from the show put on by the Kerry sisters.

There were no nerves and their performance was roundly accepted as one of the convention’s highlights.

Alexandra spoke movingly of the advice given by her father, a Vietnam war hero, when she was a “brooding” 19-year-old.

“My father told me to look outside. He said, ‘Ali, this is a beautiful day. Feel the sun. Look at the country you live in.’

“He said, ’I know men your exact age who thought they had the same future you have. Whose families were never born, who never again walked on American soil. They don’t feel this sun. Ali. Remember that you are alive. And that you are an American. Those two things make you the luckiest girl in the world’.”

And then they told the political anecdote of the election season, or as Alexandra put it “one of my favourite memories of my father”.

She told how Vanessa’s pet hamster Licorice was once knocked off a dock and “bubbled down to a watery doom”.

“That might have been the end of the story. But my dad jumped in, grabbed an oar, fished the cage from the water, hunched over the soggy hamster and began to administer CPR.

“He was never quite right after that, but Licorice lived. Like I said, it may sound silly. We still laugh about it today. But to us it was serious and that’s what mattered to my father,” she said to huge applause.

The polls show Mr Bush and Mr Kerry are neck and neck in the race for the White House.

But there is little doubt among the pundits as to who has won the battle of the daughters.