Kerry calls for ‘birth of freedom’

BOSTON — Sen. John Kerry, in a speech heavy with references to his military service in Vietnam, accepted the Democratic nomination for president last night, calling his bid for the White House “a new birth of freedom.”

“For all those who believe that our best days are ahead of us, with great faith in the American people, I accept your nomination for president of the United States,” Mr. Kerry told a wildly enthusiastic overflow crowd at the FleetCenter last night.

Introduced by his Navy swift boat crew mates and former Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, who lost his legs and one arm in the Vietnam War, Mr. Kerry vowed, “I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president.”

The 45-minute speech included many personal details about his life, but primarily was geared toward convincing voters watching on television that he could be trusted to handle national security.

His first action upon striding onto the stage to deliver his speech was to offer a military salute and say, “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty.”

“We need a strong military, and we need to lead strong alliances,” he said. “And then, with confidence and determination, we will be able to tell the terrorists: You will lose, and we will win. The future doesn’t belong to fear; it belongs to freedom.”

After a four-day convention that showcased a Democratic Party that members said was more unified than they could remember, Mr. Kerry and vice-presidential nominee John Edwards begin a two-week coast-to-coast tour today in Pennsylvania.

Last night, Mr. Kerry again laid out most of the policies he has promised during the primary campaign, including health care coverage for those who lack it, tax credits to pay for college tuitions, tax penalties for companies that take jobs overseas and new initiatives to reduce dependence on foreign nations’ oil.

A decorated Vietnam veteran, Mr. Kerry long has considered national security a strong suit of his. But polls show that most Americans place more faith in President Bush when it comes to their security.

To blunt that edge, Democrats repeatedly have drawn attention to Mr. Bush’s service in the Air National Guard during the years of the Vietnam War, where he flew fighter jets but never saw combat.

This week’s convention has focused on national security and has attempted to build for Mr. Kerry an image of strength in the face of adversity.

The professionally produced film “A Remarkable Promise,” about Mr. Kerry’s four months of fighting in Vietnam, was shown shortly before he spoke. In addition, Mr. Kerry repeatedly returned to the subject of his service in Vietnam in his speech.

“As a president,” he said, “I will wage this war with the lessons I learned in war.”

“Let there be no mistake: I will never hesitate to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response.”

And he promised to “never give any nation or any institution a veto over our national security.”

At another point, Mr. Kerry declared: “You see that flag up there. We call her Old Glory.

“I fought under that flag as did many of those people who are here tonight and all across the country. That flag flew from the gun turret right behind my head. It was shot through and through and tattered, but it never ceased to wave in the wind. It draped the caskets of men I served with and friends I grew up with,” he said.

And he brought his speech to a rousing close with an image that he has used often on the campaign trail: “I learned a lot about those values on that gunboat, patrolling the Mekong Delta with young Americans — you saw them — who came from places as different as Iowa and Oregon, Arkansas, Florida and California. … We were literally all in the same boat.”

“That is the kind of America I will lead as president,” he said, “an America where we are all in the same boat.”

Appropriating a line from Vice President Dick Cheney’s acceptance speech at the 2000 Republican convention, Mr. Kerry last night promised that “help is on the way” for members of the U.S. military. It was also an echo of Mr. Edwards’ promise on Wednesday night that “hope is on the way.”

Mr. Kerry’s constant references to Vietnam, where he served four months in combat, came in stark contrast to the few references to his 20-year tenure in the U.S. Senate, where he compiled a liberal voting record, particularly on matters of national security.

One of the few references to his Senate service came when he said about lawmakers’ medical benefits: “We give ourselves great health care, and you get the bill. Well, I’m here to say that your family’s health care is as important as any politician’s.”

Without mentioning his opponent by name, Mr. Kerry subtly attacked Mr. Bush for the poor intelligence that preceded the war in Iraq.

“As president, I will ask hard questions and demand hard evidence,” he said. “I will immediately reform the intelligence system — so policy is guided by facts, and facts are never distorted by politics.”

Republicans were ready with a response to Mr. Kerry’s recurrent suggestions that Mr. Bush “misled” the country into war.

“John Kerry missed an opportunity to help the American people understand his vote for the war in Iraq based on the same intelligence that the president viewed, his description of himself as an anti-war candidate and his subsequent vote against troops on the front lines,” said Bush-Cheney campaign chairman Marc Racicot. “He’s right. America can do better.”

During his speech, Mr. Kerry repeated a common campaign theme by saying “I know what we need to do to win in Iraq,” although the only suggestion he made was to work more cooperatively with other nations.

Mr. Kerry directly addressed Mr. Bush at one point: “In the weeks ahead, let’s be optimists, not just opponents. Let’s build unity in the American family, not angry division.”

The crowd, which interrupted his speech proper for applause 48 times, had its own ideas.

He won one of the biggest ovations with a reference to homosexual “marriage,” in a speech that otherwise stayed away from divisive social issues that might alienate the swing voters whom Mr. Kerry needs to defeat Mr. Bush.

“And let’s never misuse for political purposes the most precious document in American history, the Constitution of the United States,” he said.

Another bit of spontaneous audience reaction came during the short film about his life, emphasizing his Vietnam service. The crowd applauded when he said, “At that point, I came out against the war,” and the applause heightened moments later when he said, “I became an activist.”

Mr. Kerry also tried shaking the label of a pessimist after more than a year of slamming Mr. Bush on the economy and his handling of the war on terror. That anger at the current administration has united Democrats, but many Democrats worry that it won’t be enough to win unless they have a strong positive message for voters.

“We can do better, and we will,” Mr. Kerry said. “We’re the optimists.”

As he has done while campaigning across the country, Mr. Kerry also tried doing what former Vice President Al Gore failed to do: give Democrats credit for the 1990s economic boom while Bill Clinton was president.

“Let’s not forget what we did in the 1990s,” he told the hall full of Democrats. “We balanced the budget, we paid down the debt, we created 23 million new jobs.”

“We lifted millions out of poverty, and we lifted the standard of living for the middle class,” he said. “We just need to believe in ourselves — and we can do it again.”

Yesterday’s events contained all the symbolic pageantry that has come to be associated with national conventions aimed at personalizing a candidate, filling in weaknesses or highlighting strengths.

Before Mr. Kerry’s speech, delegates heard from the senator’s daughters, Alexandra and Vanessa, who spoke about their father’s height, hair and determination to win the party’s nomination even after many people had written his campaign off as hopeless.

“He was convinced when others were not,” Vanessa said. “He never wavered, never faltered, and he stayed the course.”

Democrats also heard from Jim Rassman, who as a lieutenant in the Army Green Berets, was grabbed by Mr. Kerry from hostile waters during a 1969 firefight in Vietnam.

Mr. Rassman said he volunteered to campaign for Mr. Kerry “not just because he saved my life, but because I’ve seen him in action.”

Introducing Mr. Kerry was Mr. Cleland, a mainstay of the Kerry campaign who became a political martyr among Democrats when he lost his 2002 election after Republicans used images of Osama bin Laden to portray him as weak on defense for voting against the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

The Kerry speech came a day after a speech by Mr. Edwards, who also sought to burnish the team’s national security credentials.

“You cannot run,” he threatened al Qaeda terrorists on Wednesday night. “You cannot hide. We will destroy you.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut Democrat who ran as his party’s vice-presidential nominee four years ago, returned to the convention stage yesterday.

“To make America safe again, we need strong leaders who know when to use American power to destroy these Islamist terrorists,” said Mr. Lieberman, who unsuccessfully sought this year’s nomination. “But we also need wise rulers who also know when and how to build bridges with Islamic people throughout the world.”