Much of the job of introducing Kerry to Americans will fall to Kerry himself when he delivers his acceptance speech, but the campaign has been struggling mightily to get other convention speakers — particularly the prime timers — to focus on telling Kerry’s story instead of eating up valuable television time tearing down Bush. Kerry is obsessed with projecting a positive image and not having the convention week fall into a Republican-bashing extravaganza.

The speeches will be heavy with themes: building an America strong at home and respected in the world, with a stronger economy, affordable health care, energy independence and a robust national defense. Keeping all the top speakers on that positive message is “a challenge,” Cahill admits. Kerry advisers have had a series of conference calls the last couple weeks with the speechwriters for top Democrats such as Al Gore, Bill Richardson, and Hillary and Bill Clinton, to emphasize the themes the candidate wants echoed. All seem to be on the same page, although Gore won’t be able to resist a little Bush-bashing because of his 2000 defeat. Fortunately, Gore appears Monday night, so Kerry aides hope any bitter taste the public might feel from a more strident speech will have faded by Thursday.

The Kerry campaign has read drafts of many of the speeches and appears satisfied. The only worry now is speakers jabbering on and cutting into the prime time stars from 10 to 11 p.m. each night. “Often when we get a copy of the speech, what is supposed to be a six-minute speech actually is fifteen,” says Cahill. Otherwise, “people understand our message and they want to talk about it,” claims Tad Devine, the campaign’s media and strategy adviser who joined Cahill in the press briefing. The testimonials are critical for the Kerry campaign. Fewer than a third of the public say they know as much about Kerry as they do of Bush. A third of the public doesn’t know he’s a Vietnam veteran and few realize he once was a state prosecutor. Kerry aides are eager to have someone other than Bush and the media tell their candidate’s life story. “The convention is really our first opportunity to present John Kerry in an unfiltered fashion,” says Cahill, who adds that polls show up to two-thirds of the public will “be paying attention to the convention.”

The Kerry campaign realizes that after the convention they enter their dangerous period, when the Bush campaign will have an extra month to unload tens of millions of primary dollars in campaign ads while Kerry will have to remain far more silent to husband the $75 million in federal campaign funds he can then only spend until the election. “It’s going to open the door [for the Republicans],” Devine says. Fortunately for the Kerry campaign, the undecided voters are unlikely to make up their minds in August. Kerry and Edwards also will travel across the country aggressively campaigning, much of it together, to stanch the bleeding in the polls. But “we’re essentially going dark in the month of August” as far as airing more expensive TV ads, says Cahill.

To weather Bush’s August offensive, Kerry this week must carve a more concrete image of himself in voters’ minds. Cahill will be happy if he can walk away from Boston with “people [seeing] him as a leader, as someone who is ready to lead this nation…If we wind up with that, we will have really achieved something.”

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