Party united by opposition to Bush

BOSTON — John Kerry leaves this city as the Democratic presidential nominee, with a party that proved the lengths it will go to beat President Bush.

Democrats papered over a deep divide on the Iraq war, differences on homosexual “marriage” and uncertainty about how to address international trade, all for the sake of the one thing that binds them: the chance to beat Mr. Bush.

“Congratulations, Mr. President, you have united the Democratic Party in a way that we have not seen in a generation,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, last night, hours before Mr. Kerry accepted the nomination.

Morris Reid, a Clinton administration official and communications strategist, said the convention proves that party factions have decided “it is more important to win than it is to be right.”

“The Democratic Party can be as disciplined as the Republican Party,” Mr. Reid said.

Mr. Kerry and vice-presidential nominee John Edwards head to Pennsylvania this morning, the first stop in a coast-to-coast bus tour through contested states.

But their real challenge will be to survive the next month.

Mr. Kerry today will receive $75 million from the Federal Election Campaign (FEC), the public funds allotted to major party candidates who opt to stay in the public-financing system. But his campaign is planning an ad blackout for the next month, in order to preserve their money for the post-Labor Day push.

That leaves the airwaves to the Bush campaign, which will not be confined to the FEC funds until Mr. Bush officially is nominated at the Republican National Convention in September.

Democrats had a solid convention all around, having headed off what could have been a hugely embarrassing picket by Boston police and firefighters, avoided the gigantic protests that are expected for the Republican convention in New York, and survived divisions on key issues. They also secured favorable press coverage of their “optimist” message, which has resonated with voters.

There were dissonant voices at the convention, to be sure. In their speeches, anti-war Democrats challenged the very basis of the same war in Iraq that Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards both voted for and that, on the last two nights, they pledged to see through.

But the television networks only covered four hours of the convention all week, and those were filled mostly by former President Bill Clinton, Mr. Edwards and his family, and Mr. Kerry and his family.

Campaign officials said they didn’t see a high bar to cross with the convention.

“We did not want this convention to be where the campaign is for all of those of us who follow it closely,” campaign senior adviser Tad Devine told reporters earlier this week. “We’re at about chapter eight right now, and we’re going back to chapter one.”

Yesterday, House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, said the convention’s energy was “overwhelming.”

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