Buoyant Kerry Embraces Role of Frontrunner

John F. Kerry took another stride Tuesday in his quest to remake himself from a stilted senator who had strained to connect with voters to a dynamic Democratic frontrunner able to excite legions of party faithful who yearn to unseat President Bush.

In an overflowing ballroom here, a buoyant Kerry claimed victories in Missouri, Delaware, Arizona, North Dakota and New Mexico. His silver hair glowing in the spotlight, Kerry clasped hands with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, snapped a salute and gave a double thumbs-up.

“Now we carry this campaign and the cause of a stronger, fairer, more prosperous America to all parts of our country,” the Massachusetts senator pledged. “We will take nothing for granted; we will compete everywhere -- and in November, we will beat George W. Bush.”

After the 20-minute speech at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel, in which his voice rasped at times from weeks of duress on the campaign trail, Kerry jumped off the stage and into a sea of grasping hands.

In television interviews before the speech, Kerry refused for a second straight day to say whether he agreed with those in his party who had accused President Bush of shirking service in the Texas Air National Guard in the early 1970s.

“I’ve never made any judgments about any choice somebody made about avoiding the draft, about going to Canada, going to jail, being a conscientious objector, going into the National Guard,” Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, told Fox News Channel. “Those are choices people make. But there is a question that’s been raised about what [Bush’s] service was. I don’t know the answers.”

Assessing the results with his traveling press corps, Kerry said: “It’s the delegate count tonight, guys.” He then raised a hand high to indicate his goal of advancing toward the nomination at the party’s July convention in his hometown of Boston.

He planned to campaign heavily in Michigan this week, which along with Washington holds caucuses Saturday, and to air television advertisements in Virginia and Tennessee, where primaries will be held Feb. 10.

Kerry also is expecting an endorsement today from the American Federation of Teachers, the latest labor union to back him.

Even before the returns came in, a series of energetic rallies across the West in recent days showed that many Democratic voters see something in Kerry beyond a junior senator from Massachusetts.

In Phoenix on Monday night, Kerry’s forceful assault on Bush at a rally in a college gymnasium seemed to captivate several hundred partisans.

“He comes across much more charismatic in person than he does on TV,” said Frank Lesselyong, 52, a lawyer. “On TV, he appears very halting. But in person -- intelligent, down-to-earth, the kind of person you might want to have a beer with.”

In Spokane, Kerry took the stage in an aircraft hangar Tuesday afternoon and exhorted voters to back him in the Washington caucuses. “Go there not to send America a message,” Kerry said. “But go there to send America a president of the United States!”

He won over Mark Westbrook, 44, a salesman and onetime supporter of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

“He has enough fire in his belly,” Westbrook said. “I want somebody who will really stand up and take it to Mr. Bush.”

Westbrook was clearly touched by the frontrunner’s aura. A grinning Kerry, mobbed after his speech by autograph seekers, stretched his long frame through the crowd to shake the hand of 4-year-old Kaylee Westbrook, riding on her dad’s shoulders and holding a pink teddy bear.

Rep. Norman D. Dicks of Washington, who endorsed Kerry last week, said he was impressed by Kerry’s rise.

“He’s going to be the nominee of the Democratic Party, and he’s coming across as a future president,” said Dicks as he rode on Kerry’s chartered Boeing 737 on Tuesday. “He’s just on fire.”

Kerry appeared loose and relaxed on his plane. Dressed in a casual button-down shirt with open collar and khaki slacks, he munched chocolate-covered peanuts and chugged bottled water in a forward seat.

A sign posted on a cabin wall directly in front of him proclaimed the candidate “The Real Deal.” Bantering with reporters, Kerry said he looked forward to a detour from the campaign trail today in Boston. He said he needed a one-day break.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” Kerry said.

He then grabbed onto two seat backs and swung himself upward in the aisle like a gymnast on parallel bars.

In another encounter with reporters at 30,000 feet, he seemed to relish the prospect of shifting gears for the general election.

“I’m going to take the fight right to George Bush. I have every day, and I will continue to. We have very different visions of where this country ought to be going and how we get there,” Kerry said. “We’re going to have a great debate.”

Kerry’s breakthrough as a possible presidential nominee has vindicated effort to shed his senatorial image: verbose, aloof and patrician.

He has not been on the Senate floor since he cast two votes in opposition to the Republican Medicare prescription drug bill on Nov. 24, and he has no plans to go back anytime soon.

Freed from the constraints of Capitol Hill, the 60-year-old has by all accounts honed his campaign speech, weeding out phrases that sound more like a four-term senator than a would-be president.

In one passage of his speech, Kerry condemns senators and House members for giving themselves better health insurance than ordinary Americans can afford -- an artful twist for someone who has been a senator for 19 years.

He also sprinkles the speech with easily remembered phrases, such as an indictment of the Bush administration for fostering “a creed of greed” and a challenge to Bush on national security -- often joined by a chorus from the audience: “Bring it on!”