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.”

“I have attended eight conventions since 1968, and this convention was clearly the most successful,” he said.

Now Mr. Kerry must translate that spirit into votes and, more important, make sure that he doesn’t shed support during the next month as he regroups and begins a low-cost stretch of campaigning.

Mr. Kerry has survived “going dark” on television before.

In the days after he secured enough delegates for the nomination in the spring, Mr. Bush began an advertising blitz designed to define Mr. Kerry as a flip-flopping liberal for voters. But continued bad news from Iraq, as well as spending by Democrat-leaning independent interest groups, muted Mr. Bush’s attack.

This time, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said the party will try to raise $100 million to counter the Republicans’ money.

“We are not going to let George Bush distort John Kerry’s positions and redefine him for this country,” he told reporters earlier this week.

And Mr. McAuliffe also said he doesn’t think any votes will be won or lost in the next few weeks.

“We’re out there in a universe of 10 [percent] to 20 percent, trying to reach out to true swing voters. We believe most of these voters won’t make up their minds who they’re going to vote for until some time in October,” Mr. McAuliffe said. “They’re going to wait for both conventions, they’re going to want to see these three presidential debates, and then I think they’re going to make up their minds. So we just have to do what we have to do to get our message out there.”

Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg said Mr. Kerry must prepare for Republicans to “wage culture war” during the upcoming month. With so much money to spend and Mr. Bush performing worse among culturally conservative voters in polls this year than he did in the 2000 election, Mr. Greenberg said the temptation will be to advertise on homosexual “marriage,” abortion and other social issues.

For now, though, nothing seems to shake the electorate one way or another, and Mr. Kerry starts this campaign stretch in far better position that either Bill Clinton in 1992 or Al Gore in 2000. Mr. Gore, for example, was 11 points down going into his own convention in Los Angeles.

Polls taken before the convention showed a tight race, with either candidate leading by a few points depending on the poll. That hasn’t changed much at all since Mr. Kerry secured the nomination.

Mr. Kerry came into the convention with polls showing that fewer voters thought they knew a lot about Mr. Kerry than the number who said they knew a lot about him during the primaries.

It will be several days before new polls show whether that changed.

But he’s bound to see a boost, after four days and dozens of speakers telling American voters Mr. Kerry is committed to national security.

Mr. Reid said something happens when the candidate takes the podium to become the nominee — he becomes a government in waiting.

“Once you walk out that door, you have a legitimate shot at being the leader of the free world. It’s very different than being a candidate,” he said.