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If you were wondering why Sen. John Kerry's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination has been so lame, a partial answer came on Tuesday: he wasnt' really campaigning! All those months of stumping, money-raising, and image-testing were just a warm-up. He wasn't, as you thought, running an ineffective campaign. He just wasn't trying. The senator from Massachussetts officially kicked off his candidacy only this week, and he did so against the backdrop of an aircraft carrier and American flags in South Carolina, keen to play up his Navy service in Vietnam and dubbing his campaign "The American Courage Tour." The...

DERRY, N.H. (Reuters) - Maybe it was the ginger tea or the homemade brownies, but Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry ran a gamut of emotions on Wednesday, angrily denouncing President Bush as "dead wrong" on Iraq and shedding tears at a jobless woman's story.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — On his first day as an official Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry did not get past his second campaign stop before having to deny a staff shake-up was in the works. It was the last thing Kerry needed on a day his campaign was getting heavy media attention to his entry into the race, and he hoped to focus it on sharp differences he has with President Bush. Talk of changes in Kerry's campaign have surfaced as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean surged past Kerry in fund raising and opinion polls in key early states...

ANNOUNCING his candidacy for the office of President on Tuesday, Sen. John Kerry wasted no time before mentioning that he was a Navy combat veteran in Vietnam. In fact, his service, as usual, was the first thing about himself that he highlighted. Kerry made his announcement in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., with the retired World War II aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown as his backdrop, for two reasons: to be sure that no one who watched the speech live or on television could miss the connection between John Kerry and the U.S. Navy; and to collect votes for the South Carolina primary....

So what was in those brownies? Perhaps in hopes of doping up the press corps that covered Sen. John Kerry's Tuesday announcement that he is running for president, Kerry's trophy wife, Terry Kerry (she of Heinz family fortune fame), passed around a tray of brownies she claimed she'd baked. Reporters on the flight down to Charleston gobbled them up, then proceeded to oversell attendance at the event in front of the USS Yorktown. Conservative estimates put attendance at about 200 to 250 people. Hallucinatory press reports put that number at upwards of 400 or more. On a happier note, no...

John Kerry, the junior senator from Massachusetts who would be president, wants us to know that he's a war hero and George W. Bush isn't. This week, Kerry formally announced his bid for the Democratic nomination using the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown as his backdrop. Kerry surrounded himself with some of the men he served with in Vietnam, where he earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. He then used the occasion to launch an all-out assault on the integrity of the present Commander-in-Chief. "George Bush's vision does not live up to the America I enlisted in...

This is a live thread for the Kerry announcement expected shortly. He is using an aircraft carrier as a backdrop.

Tuesday, September 2 2003 MORE KERRY: Here's the link to Kerry's speech. And by the way, where's the outrage from the Dems over Kerry's use of an aircraft carrier as a political prop? Let's compare: "I am loath to think of an aircraft carrier being used as an advertising backdrop for a presidential political slogan, and yet that is what I saw." - Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV)

As the claxons sounded and fires raged above and below decks, Admiral John Forbes Kerry boarded his slow, once invincible battlewagon. Oblivious to the groans of rupturing boilers and a 15º list to starboard, the Admiral orders “Full speed ahead and prepare to engage the enemy!” to an astonished crew. Kerry had worked all night on a battle plan that befuddled even his most ardent advisors. At first, He boldly played cat-and-mouse with the “Super Dreadnought” Dean but then retired back to Nantucket harbor to “refuel“ and do some windsurfing. Most officers called for aggressive tactics while Kerry chose caution,...

Opens by making fun of Baptists: Speaking of "fans" says he'll turn this speech into a "baptist revival" indicating that baptists are fanatics.

When Sen. John Kerry officially announces his presidential candidacy today in South Carolina, he better hope local Democrats don't remember how he trashed the state as being unimportant to his presidential campaign earlier this year. "Al Gore proved that you can win the election without a single Southern state, if he'd only won New Hampshire," Kerry told a group of San Francisco Democrats in March. Now that Kerry is trailing Vermont upstart Howard Dean in both Iowa and New Hampshire, however, he's turned his eyes southward to try and burnish his credentials as a candidate of national stature. Kerry...