Kerry & Edwards Tout Ticket

Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards, months after sharing stages as rivals in the Democratic primary fight, appeared for the first time as running mates on Wednesday at a farm outside Pittsburgh.

The two men, joined by their wives and families, greeted reporters on a grassy field at the farm owned by Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, a day after the Massachusetts senator and presumptive nominee named his North Carolina colleague as his vice presidential candidate.

The candidates hugged and joked. Both held hands with Edwards' son Jack.

"We come to this with a deep, deep belief that America can do better and today we are embarking on a journey not for us but for our country," Kerry said. "I could not be more proud with the pick I made. This man is ready for this job, he is ready to help lead America."

"This is a great privilege for me, a great opportunity to serve my country," Edwards said. "This campaign is about the future and it's about restoring hope."

Later, the two senators were to begin tracking the electoral map that both parties will follow as the race unfolds, reports CBS News Correspondent Peter Maer, starting with rallies in battleground Ohio and moving to the key state of Florida. Over the next few days, the Democratic ticket will be in New York, West Virginia and New Mexico.

CBS News has learned that a new Kerry television ad will begin airing in several markets on Wednesday highlighting the backgrounds of "a new team for America."

"One is a combat veteran with over 30 years of experience handling the toughest issues facing America. The other is the son of a mill worker who all his life has stood up for ordinary people against powerful interests," the ad script reads. "Today they're a new team for America with a plan to make us stronger at home and respected in the world."

The ad seeks to counter two of Mr. Bush political attack lines: that Kerry is a flip-flopping liberal, while Edwards is a trial lawyer with little experience in politics and foreign policy.

Mr. Bush's strategy will be to try to convince voters that Kerry and Edwards are "out of the mainstream of America when it comes to the war on terror, the economy and values," said Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's chief political adviser. He said Edwards of North Carolina is Kerry's "ideological soul mate."

A CBS News poll finds that a majority of voters, and an overwhelming majority of Democrats, like the pick. But while Edwards' favorable ratings exceed his unfavorable ones by four to one, he is still unknown to a majority of registered voters: On the night after Kerry picked him, 53 percent expressed no opinion of Edwards. And 41 percent feel Edwards lacks the experience to be president, while 37 percent feel he possesses the right experience.

Kerry and Edwards both supported the congressional resolution authorizing Mr. Bush to go to war in Iraq and both voted against the administration's $87 billion request for Iraq and Afghanistan. Both advocate rolling back Mr. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans but support other tax cuts for middle- and low-income people. Unlike Mr. Bush, they both support abortion rights and have indicated they would only nominate Supreme Court justices who share that view.

In one nomination spat, Edwards bragged that his plan to expand health insurance would cover just a few million fewer people than Kerry's, and at much less cost. He said his rival "would drive us deeper and deeper into deficit."

In another, Edwards voiced opposition to trade agreements Kerry supported, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement. He used that issue to illustrate to voters how he — unlike the son of privilege he was trying to beat — understood the pain of a mill town closing from foreign competition.

Kerry coolly refused to concede the two were far apart on trade, saying the main difference was that Edwards chose to spend so much time talking about it.

Both slipped into vagaries on the subject, which comes in handy in reconciling positions now.

Edwards supports the death penalty while Kerry opposes it except for terrorists. But capital punishment is far from the top tier of presidential campaign issues.

Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney offered welcome-to-the-race statements without a touch of criticism as Edwards joined Kerry on the Democratic ticket Tuesday. But the White House, the Bush-Cheney campaign and the Republican National Committee did not hesitate to spring a name-calling attack against Edwards and heap new criticism on Kerry, who is from Massachusetts.

In a 26-page document, the Republican National Committee blasted Edwards as "phony and disingenuous" and "unaccomplished." It listed several pages worth of quotes in which Kerry criticized Edwards — his one-time rival for the Democratic presidential nomination — as being insufficiently experienced. The document also said Edwards votes like a "Northeastern liberal" and described his "rural populist message" as "just another gimmick."

The RNC created a new Web site where it posted the attack.

Mr. Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan, didn't quibble with the tough descriptions.

"Is there something in there that you're disputing?" McClellan replied when a reporter asked about the RNC accusations. "It's perfectly reasonable to talk about the differences on the issues and to talk about the record."

Usually the White House defers to the Bush-Cheney campaign on political questions, but the administration is under increasing pressure and bracing for a Kerry jump in the polls.

A smooth-talking Southern populist, Edwards won high marks during last winter's primary with his "two Americas" stump speech, depicting one America for the wealthy and privileged and another for everybody else.

"It is populism without a sneering, snarling edge to it that I believe is a really powerful one for Democrats this time around," said Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.