Kerry prepares to lift Democratic crown

The man challenging George Bush for the White House, Senator John Kerry, arrived tonight in Boston where his followers are gathered for the pre-election Democratic National Convention.

The convention was shifting into high gear on its third day, with an address expected from vice-presidential candidate Senator John Edwards.

Nearly 4,500 delegates have already heard from the former president and first lady, Bill and Hillary Clinton, military and political veterans and the woman who could be the next First Lady, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Mr Kerry, a Massachusetts Senator, has been on a whistlestop tour of states in recent days while the convention was under way.

He has been seeking to demonstrate his strengths as a commander in chief, promising a tough stance on terrorism and highlighting his own military credentials as a decorated Vietnam war veteran.

Even his arrival in Boston had a military flavour as he docked in the harbour aboard a water taxi, accompanied by former Vietnam comrades.

The highlight of the four-day conference will come tomorrow night when Mr Kerry delivers a rallying speech and is named officially by the Democratic Party as the candidate to challenge Republican President Bush.

Tonight, Senator Edwards, a youthful-looking lawyer from North Carolina, will stir the delegates. In recent days he has been putting the final touches to his speech and nursing a cold which threatened his voice.

“He’ll be talking both about the big themes of this campaign and optimism searching for a better tomorrow that this nation has always represented,” said his wife Elizabeth.

After Mr Edwards speaks there will be a roll call of delegates from the different states, who will endorse him as Mr Kerry’s official running mate.

Last night the convention heard from Mrs Heinz Kerry, the multi-millionaire heiress to the Heinz foods empire.

She said her husband, if elected at the November 2 presidential election, would put the US back on its “moral bearings”.

“With John Kerry as president we can and we will protect our nation’s security” without eroding civil liberties, she said.

“John is a fighter. He earned his medals the old-fashioned way, by putting his life on the line for his country.

“And no-one will defend this nation more vigorously as he will. And he will always, always be the first in the line of fire,” she said.

Mrs Heinz Kerry, raised in Africa and educated in Switzerland, speaks five languages and her wealth outstrips that of her younger husband.

Before she spoke, the podium was graced by an unlikely figure – the son of former Republican President Ronald Reagan, Ron.

Ron Reagan appeared to urge voters to back Mr Kerry, speaking on the subject of embryonic stem cell research, which the Bush Administration opposes.

Such research could cure many diseases, perhaps one day Alzheimer’s which afflicted former President Reagan before his death last month.

He said there was a choice between “reason and ignorance”.

He told delegates: “This is our moment, and we must not falter. Whatever else you do, come November 2, I urge you please to cast a vote for embryonic stem cell research.”

At an earlier campaign stop in Norfolk, Virginia, Mr Kerry promised to implement policies which would “isolate enemies, not America”.

He said that as president he would immediately implement the recommendations of a congressional commission into the September 11 terrorist attacks, which last week called for an overhaul of the US intelligence community.

And, in a criticism of the Iraq war, he said he would lead a country which “never goes to war because we want to – we go to war because we have to”.

Mr Kerry and President Bush are virtually level-pegging in the polls.

The convention has prompted a massive security operation in Boston, amid fears that al-Qaida terrorists may try to disrupt the election.

Protesters are confined to a caged-off area, while security cameras have been installed across the city. Despite fears of mass demonstrations, no arrests have been made, police said.

Snipers have been seen on roofs surrounding the venue – the Fleet Centre – as coastguards patrol Boston Harbour and helicopters buzz overhead.

The overall security operation is estimated to be costing around €52.9m.

The Republican Party’s convention will open in New York at the end of August.

The Democrats accused space agency Nasa of dirty tricks after photographs emerged of a grinning Mr Kerry clad in an all-in-one baby blue suit, on his hands and knees, at Cape Canaveral space centre.

The pictures were taken during a visit earlier this week.

“No photos were supposed to be taken,” said Mr Kerry’s campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill.