Kerry's curtain raiser

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The Democratic National Convention kicks off tomorrow in Boston, the heart of American political liberalism, to nominate two liberal soul mates -- Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry for president and a younger, less-experienced running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

The Democratic strategy behind the carefully orchestrated four-day convention will be to give the Kerry-Edwards ticket a sharper thematic message that senior party advisers say it lacks and to portray the candidates as political centrists to appeal to independent, swing voters who are uncomfortable with their leftist voting records on national security and domestic-spending issues.

The party gathering -- which will cost an estimated $95 million and draw nearly 5,000 delegates and alternates, 15,000 elected officials and other VIPs and thousands of reporters to Boston's FleetCenter -- comes at a difficult time for the Democrats, who have been in political decline for the past decade, and when party advisers say Mr. Kerry remains a little-known political commodity, who has not made the case to the American people that he should replace President Bush in the White House.

The convention is being held under extraordinary security precautions in the face of heightened concerns about terrorist threats and anti-war protesters. Disputes between City Hall and police and fire unions have led workers to threaten picketing, although the police unions came to an agreement last week. As last-minute negotiations continued yesterday with the firefighters union, the picketing plans were not clear.

At least six state delegations have said they will avoid all picketed events at the convention.

That could lead to a potentially embarrassing situation, where Mr. Kerry could refuse to visit some delegations or convention events.

"I don't cross picket lines. I never have," he said last month when he refused to deliver a scheduled speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Boston because of picket lines around the conference hall.

Bashing Bush

Although the summer polls show the presidential race remains in a virtual dead heat, interviews with top Democratic officials and strategists say that the often-aloof Massachusetts senator still has some heavy lifting to do at the convention to turn himself into a warm, well-liked, competitive candidate that swing voters can trust to run the country. Many Democrats are advising Mr. Kerry to stop bashing Mr. Bush and start talking more about what he would do as president.