Cranking It Up For John Kerry

Energized by Bill and Hillary Clinton, Democrats assailed George W. Bush as a president who mishandled the economy and bungled the war on terror. John Kerry will "rally the world to our side," the former president said in a prime-time address on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.

Mr. Clinton - declaring himself a "foot soldier" in John Kerry's battle for the presidency - asked voters to rally against President Bush and a Republican Party that believes in an America "run by the right people - their people."

The twice-elected former president said, "Democrats and Republicans have very different ideas on what choices we should make, rooted in fundamentally different views of how we should meet our common challenges at home, and how we should play our role in the world."

The convention - no longer a vehicle for choosing the candidates, at least not this year - is still seen as a powerful tool for framing political messages. For the Kerry campaign, the four days of the convention is viewed as a chance to make the case to voters that Kerry is the acceptable and preferable alternative to President Bush, whose approval ratings have been declining.

On Tuesday, the party turns to Ted Kennedy and Kerry's outspoken wife to define the Massachusetts senator.

Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt, Carol Mosley-Braun, Ron Reagan, and Maya Angelou will also take the podium on the convention's second day to extol the virtues of the Massachusetts senator and the urgency of retaking the White House.

"The state that gave us John Adams and John Kennedy has now given us John Kerry, a good man, a great senator, a visionary leader," said Mr. Clinton, in a speech that brought delegates to their feet. "Tonight I speak as a citizen, eager to join you here in Boston as a foot soldier in the fight for our future, as we nominate a true New England patriot for president."

Mr. Clinton received a rousing reception when he walked onto the convention stage after being introduced by his wife, first-term New York

The party's 44th national convention opened under extraordinary security as Kerry campaigned in Florida. In a battleground state he has visited more than a half-dozen times this year, he urged Republicans and independents to "stop and think" before casting their votes in November.

Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000 but lost the White House, urged delegates in Boston to "fully and completely" channel their anger over the bitter recount and send Kerry to the White House.

"When policies are clearly not working, we can change them. If our leaders make mistakes, we can hold them accountable - even if they never admit their mistakes," said Gore.

The former vice president drew repeated ovations from the crowd — none louder than when he drew his wife Tipper into a kiss reminiscent of the one they shared at the convention four years ago in Los Angeles.

Former President Jimmy Carter, elected to the White House in 1976, accused President Bush of squandering the international goodwill that flowed to the United States in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Unilateral acts and demands have isolated the United States from the very nations we need to join us in combating terrorism," Carter said.

The delegates gathered amid unprecedented security for the first national political convention since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The subway station that runs near the Fleet Center was barricaded shut, and armed personnel stood guard along a seven-foot-tall metal security fence that ringed the convention complex.

At the behest of the Secret Service, the city revoked a permit for Operation Rescue and several other anti-abortion groups to demonstrate outside Kerry's Beacon Hill home during convention week.

The groups sued, to no avail. "I'm not going to second-guess the Secret Service's idea of how they feel they need to protect a presidential candidate," said Judge Nathaniel Gorton in denying the request.

"Security is being used to prevent any type of free speech activity," countered Brandi Swindell, national director of Generation Life, one of the anti-abortion groups.

During a campaign stop Monday at Cape Canaveral, Fla., Kerry underscored the theme that America can be both stronger at home and respected abroad. He criticized President Bush as having an almost exclusively military response to Sept. 11.

"Never in 35 years have I seen the United States as much the target, as much sort of derided and disrespected as we are today, where Americans when they travel abroad are at risk," said Kerry, who served as a naval officer in the Vietnam War 35 years ago.

What passed for controversy in Boston was stirred by Kerry's wife. Heinz Kerry told a persistent reporter on Sunday to "shove it" when he urged her to expand on her call for more civility in politics.

"I wanted him to back off because he was trying to trap me with words I hadn't said, and I think that's my right, and I think you would do that too if someone attacked your integrity," Heinz Kerry told CBS News Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm about her comments to the editorial page editor of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

"I always say what I think," she said. "I don't go out and say it willy nilly for its own sake, but when called upon, I do.

"I don't mind criticism, provided it's intelligent, not gratuitous."

Kerry, who runs even to slightly ahead of President Bush in pre-convention polls, is not scheduled to arrive back in Boston until Wednesday night. He plans to watch the convention's opening night speeches from a hotel room in Norfolk, Va., where he will speak Tuesday.

Kerry also plans to campaign in Philadelphia before reaching Boston.