Kerry Celebrates A Milestone

It's a roller coaster week for John Kerry.

The Massachusetts senator's Illinois primary win Tuesday gave him enough delegates for him to feel comfortable celebrating having enough delegates to win the Democratic Party's nomination at the convention in July.

It wasn't much of a contest in Illinois - Kerry got 72 percent of the vote with no real opposition - and according to CBS News estimates based in part on interviews with super delegates, Kerry had already clinched the winning number of delegates a week ago.

But this was the time number-crunchers in the Kerry camp felt safe in marking the milestone.

And while his smile was genuine, the presumptive Democratic Party's nominee for president did not have an especially easy day on the campaign trail.

Campaigning in West Virginia Tuesday, Kerry was dogged by an attack ad from the Bush-Cheney campaign and increasingly sharp comments from GOPers challenging him to name names of foreign leaders who have told him they'd like to see a change in leadership in the White House.

The re-election ads for George W. Bush meanwhile have stirred some powerful opponents into action: Bill and Hillary Clinton, who with other top Democrats, are trying to raise $10 million for Kerry within ten days.

In an e-mail to prospective donors, the former president says fortifying the Kerry campaign coffers is " our chance to demonstrate that, in 2004, we're not going to yield an inch to the Republican attack machine when it comes to defining what this campaign is all about."

The Internet money drive is to be followed by a 20 city fund-raising tour by Kerry that he hopes will raise $15 million to $20 million by early May. Kerry's fundraisers start March 29 with a two-day swing through California.

First up, however, is a chance for Kerry to get a little rest. After a speech in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Kerry and his wife will be heading to Ketchum, Idaho, for a weeklong break at their vacation home there.

There continues to be no letup in campaign rhetoric about both the war in Iraq and Kerry's own background as a Vietnam War veteran.

Speaking to veterans in West Virginia Tuesday, Kerry said as president, he would be a "veteran's veteran." The senator went on to accuse President Bush of misleading the country on everything from the war to the economy while breaking promises to veterans needing health care.

West Virginia, with 203,000 veterans, or 15.4 percent of its adult population, is home to more veterans per capita than all but Alaska, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. Although solidly Democratic in past elections, West Virginia sided with Bush instead of Al Gore in 2000. Its five electoral votes would be essential in another close election.

"Nothing is more important than telling the American people the truth about the economy, health care, and war and peace," Kerry told veterans in Huntington. "This administration has yet to level with the American people."

In a nod to Mountain State geography, Kerry said, "On issue after issue, this president's misleading misstatements have produced a credibility gap as big as the New River Gorge."

Joining Kerry in Huntington were seven members of swift boats he commanded in Vietnam, service that won him three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star. At the same time, the Bush campaign released a television ad accusing Kerry of being "wrong on defense" by not supporting bills that would have ensured troops had body armor and higher combat pay and given reservists and their families better health care.

"Few votes in Congress are as important as funding our troops at war. Though John Kerry voted in October of 2002 for military action in Iraq, he later voted against funding our soldiers," the ad says.

Kerry labeled the ad "another distortion," arguing that he would have supported funding for the troops if Bush had eased his tax cut to avoid exploding the deficit.

"I'm not going to worry about the misleading," Kerry said. "I'm going to keep pounding away at the truth. We're going to build an army of truth-tellers."

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt rejected Kerry's argument, charging Kerry with abandoning troops.

"While he falsely attacks the president over veteran's funding, John Kerry authorized our troops to liberate Iraq and then voted against funding for body armor, increased combat pay and health care to support them," Schmidt said.

Tuesday night, Kerry choose Charleston, W. Va., as the site for his Illinois primary victory speech in which he thanked voters for "helping us achieve our goal - a nomination marked by unity and not division."

"Together, in the months ahead, we will call on the best in Americans - and stand up for the best in America," Kerry told about several thousand cheering backers. "I say to you tonight: A new day is on the way."

From the Oval Office on Tuesday, Mr. Bush aimed his own barbs at Kerry, questioning the Democratic candidate's truthfulness by calling on him to identify world leaders Kerry has said would rather see Kerry as president.

Although Kerry has said he won't break confidences by naming any of the overseas leaders, Mr. Bush told reporters, "If you're going to make an accusation in the course of a presidential campaign, you ought to back it up with facts."

Howard Dean, Kerry's former rival, said it was "silly" for the Bush administration to suggest Kerry reveal names, "given the proclivity of this administration to threaten those both home and abroad who are candid."

"If I were Senator Kerry I wouldn't name those names because this administration would clearly make their lives difficult," said Dean.

For the second day in a row, Vice President Dick Cheney criticized Kerry at a Republican fundraiser. "We are the ones who get to determine the outcome of this election, not unnamed foreign leaders," Cheney told donors at a benefit for Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo.

In a speech to be delivered Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, Cheney will try to draw a contrast between Kerry and Bush in national security terms. "The American people will have a clear choice in the election of 2004 - at least as clear as any since the election of 1984," Cheney says, according to an advance text of his speech.