Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) tours the stage at the Democratic National Convention. Delivering what has been touted as the most important address of his life, Kerry will close the Convention by accepting the nomination for president.(AFP/Paul Richards)
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BOSTON, United States (AFP) - After three days of Democrats' attacks on President George W. Bush (news - web sites), presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) will take the stage at his party's convention for a crucial speech to explain why he can do better.
Delivering what has been touted as the most important address of his life, Kerry will close the four-day national gathering by accepting the nomination for president -- setting the stage for a bruising three-month election showdown.
Polls say Bush and Kerry are in a virtual dead heat but give the president the edge when it comes to national security, a vital question for the United States in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror strikes and the war in Iraq (news - web sites).
For the first time since the Cold War, opinion surveys show foreign policy is a vital issue for nearly half of US voters, and Democrats have used the spotlight this week to paint Bush as a misguided, dangerous world leader.
Kerry's vice presidential running-mate John Edwards (news - web sites) on Wednesday denounced Bush's "hateful, negative politics" and promised a different United States that would repair US relations abroad, damaged by the unpopular Iraq war.
But while the lines of attack have been drawn, Kerry on Thursday will still be under pressure to begin defining his own national political stance as something more than just anti-Bush.
Despite two decades of service in the US Senate and his decorated service in the Vietnam war, Kerry has struggled to carve his identity in the minds of voters, with polls showing many still unsure of what he stands for.
"The doubts about Mr. Kerry concern not his courage, but his judgement and conviction," The Wall Street Journal said Thursday, while the New York Times said the senator needed to clarify his "impossibly opaque" policy on Iraq.
Aides say much of Kerry's speech will be devoted to the issue of national security, as the senator seeks to polish his credentials as an effective commander-in-chief.
Warm-up speeches with the same message will be delivered by the likes of retired general and former NATO (news - web sites) supreme commander Wesley Clark (news - web sites), and Jim Rassman, a green beret whose life Kerry saved in Vietnam.
A short documentary, which credits Steven Spielberg as an advisor, will offer a highlights review of his life and career, with stirring testimony from fellow veterans, family and friends.
Party conventions traditionally provide a ratings boost for their candidates, and Kerry will seek to keep the momentum rolling by launching a gruelling 21-state, cross country tour the morning after his speech.
But Friday will also mark return in force of the Republican re-election machine after a week in which Bush retired to his Texas ranch to leave the national spotlight to the Democrats.
Bent on minimising any advantage reaped by Kerry from the Boston event, Bush plans a punishing 48-hour campaign swing through the key battleground states of Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Though Democrats had promoted their convention as an opportunity to flesh out their candidate, a large number of speakers instead focused on Bush, slamming him on every issue from education and health to Iraq and the war on terror.
In an electrifying address dripping with sarcasm, Bill Clinton (news - web sites) questioned Bush's wisdom. Jimmy Carter said he had squandered the goodwill of the world after September 11. And Al Gore (news - web sites) said the United States had lost respect.
The anti-Bush invective was picked up by top former generals and fire-breathing preachers, school children and veterans -- and even the son of late Republican icon Ronald Reagan (news - web sites).
The fiery rhetoric may have stirred the party faithful, but it seemed to have fallen short of the stated aim of laying the groundwork for Kerry to finally assert his personality on the election.
The patrician 60-year-old, son of privilege and husband of fortune, has been dogged by his image as a dour and charm-shy figure lacking the common touch so crucial in US politics.
Perhaps his shrewdest move thus far was his choice as running-mate, with the boyish charm and up-from-poverty background of Edwards providing the energy and appeal that Kerry's lacklustre campaign had lacked.
"Hope is on the way!" Edwards exhorted the thousands of delegates on Wednesday evening, after delivering a well-honed populist stump speech blaming the Republicans for the "Two Americas" -- one wealthy and one poor.
"You, the American people, you can reject the tired, old, hateful, negative, politics of the past. Instead you can embrace the politics of hope, the politics of what's possible because this is America," Edwards said.
