Candidates Strive to Overcome Privilege (LA Times)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-privilege20jun20,1,3611733.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Candidates Strive to Overcome Privilege
High social standing has played different roles in Kerry's and Bush's political careers.
By Robin Abcarian
Times Staff Writer

June 20, 2004

He is a scion of American aristocracy whose path through life has been strewn with privilege.

Born to a family with deep roots on the Eastern Seaboard and a powerful place in U.S. history, he was pushed out of the nest into a boarding school where he often felt out of place. But that school — and his name — would help pave the way into an Ivy League college.

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His first run at political office was a disaster. Accused of carpetbagging, he was badly thumped. But he dusted himself off and went to work. Years later, he would again try his hand at politics. This time he would succeed, and spectacularly.

Now he is running for president of the United States. And that's the curious thing: While this thumbnail biography describes President Bush to a T, it also describes his presumed Democratic rival, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.

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