Kerry's task: clarify his message

As John Kerry makes his way toward Boston and the final phase of the presidential race, he's still working to develop a fundamental campaign building block: a clear and compelling message.

For many candidates, the convention represents a key opportunity to refocus their message, as they move from the primary to the general- election campaign. It also allows them to animate political themes and policy prescriptions with a sense of biography. In 1992, for instance, Bill Clinton successfully used his story of a hardscrabble childhood in "a place called Hope" to reinforce his campaign's economic message - and shift attention away from the womanizing issue.

But Senator Kerry seems to be entering his convention with a murkier message than most of his predecessors. Despite millions of dollars spent on early advertising, roughly a third of voters say they know little to nothing about him. And while polls show a majority of voters are dissatisfied with the direction of the country, Kerry remains essentially tied with President Bush, suggesting that many Americans don't yet see him as an appealing alternative.

Some of this is not Kerry's fault: To an unusual extent, the drumbeat of external events - from Iraq to the 9/11 commission report - has made it difficult for both campaigns to break through. Indeed, Mr. Bush has come under recent criticism for failing to offer a clear second-term agenda.

But while supporters argue Kerry does offer a substantial mix of innovative proposals and a compelling life story, some say he needs to distill those themes into a clearer overall message for voters to grasp.

"I don't think he's been vague as much as he's been complex," says David Kusnet, a former speechwriter for President Clinton. "What he has to do is put himself in a sharper focus."

Democrats argue Kerry is in a far stronger position than most challengers - going into his convention tied or even slightly ahead of an incumbent president, and with the party strongly united behind him.

Yet at the same time, this Democratic unity can be seen as having hindered Kerry's message development up to this point. During the primary campaign, Democratic voters' intense desire to oust Bush from office led them to focus on electability more than anything else - so that candidates often wound up spending more time talking about why they could go head to head with Bush, rather than where they wanted to lead the country.

"The whole primary contest was overwhelmed by the search by Democratic voters for who's the best person to beat Bush," says Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist who worked on Rep. Dick Gephardt's primary campaign. "Kerry had some good solid policy stuff that he talked about, but it just got lost."

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