Kerry enters campaign to unseat Bush

11.45am - By RUPERT CORNWELL in Washington

Now the comes hard part for John Kerry. Having duly clinched the Democratic nomination with a near sweep on 'Super Tuesday, the Massachusetts senator yesterday entered what will surely be a bitter eight-month general election campaign, to unseat a sitting president with unprecedented financial resources and a team that will stop at nothing to secure a second term.

After one of the most remarkable political comebacks in modern times, Mr Kerry has scant time to savour his triumph.

Today the Bush-Cheney campaign launches a $4m barrage of national TV advertising - a mere drop from a campaign war chest of $143m, to be further augmented by a new fundraising blitz which Mr Bush began yesterday in California and Texas.

The first ads will be positive, portraying the President as a decisive and steady leader who has turned the economy around. But quickly, Bush strategists will focus on Mr Kerry's perceived weak points, depicting him as an archetypal 'Massachusetts liberal' and waffler who cannot make up his mind on the issues - among them the war in Iraq.

If he is to hit back effectively, Mr Kerry must overcome two big handicaps.

The first is the money problem - plain in the urgent e-mail appeal by the campaign last night for contributions to replenish his resources.

The second is the loss of the free publicity of a primary campaign in which every Democratic candidate relentlessly battered Mr Bush, driving the President's approval ratings to the lowest of his term.

In the event, 'Super Tuesday' eclipsed the expectations of even Mr Kerry's most fervent supporters.

"Tonight the message could not be clearer across our country," he told exultant supporters at a victory rally here as the results flowed in on Tuesday evening,

"Change is coming to America."

Of the 10 states which voted, he lost in only one - the tiny New England state of Vermont which quixotically gave a first and only victory to its former governor, Howard Dean, the one-time frontrunner who pulled out of the contest a fortnight ago, after a collapse that was the mirror image of Mr Kerry's ascent.

John Edwards, his lone serious challenger, came close only on his home southern turf of Georgia, but fell short even there. Everywhere else Mr Kerry won with landslides - in six states (including the evening's biggest prizes of California and New York) by margins of between 30 and 50 points.

Having initially vowed to continue the battle in the four southern states which hold primaries next Tuesday, the North Carolina Senator abruptly changed plans on Tuesday night, deciding to return to his home town of Raleigh, where he announced his formal withdrawal from the race last night.

His defeat was sealed early in the evening, when Mr Kerry rolled to a comfortable victory in the pivotal industrial state of Ohio, where Mr Edwards had expected his anti-free trade, pro-jobs message to resonate.

Instead, Democratic voters in Ohio, as everywhere else, made clear that for all the campaigning skills of Mr Edwards, the more battle-tested Mr Kerry, with his knowledge of national security issues and glittering Vietnam war record, was the candidate they judged best qualified to succeed in the all-important task of driving the detested Mr Bush from the White House.

On his first morning as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Kerry headed to the battleground state of Florida to deliver what aides said would be an indictment of Bush's leadership on national security issues. Kerry said he would quickly begin his search for a potential running mate.

"I may have an announcement to some degree on that later," Kerry told reporters on his flight to Orlando, Florida. He was expected to set up a search committee to examine potential prospects.

The Massachusetts senator presides over a party more united than ever, after a primary season remarkable for the absence of intra-party blood-letting - symbolised by the fulsome praise both victor and vanquished heaped upon each other after the contest for the nomination was settled.

But the scale of Mr Kerry's triumph - just three months after his candidacy had been all but written off - masks some alarming weaknesses.

Exit polls in several states which held open primaries on Tuesday showed that Mr Edwards was more attractive to the independent and 'soft' Republican voters whom Democrats must win over if they are to prevail in November.

Not surprisingly, many senior Democrats are looking to a Kerry-Edwards 'dream ticket' that would combine the Lincolnesque gravitas of the man from Massachusetts with the sunny optimism of Mr Edwards, and his presumed ability to sway one or two of the Southern states swept by Mr Bush in 2000.

Some party elders also worry that the compressed and relatively amicable, primary season may not have put Mr Kerry sufficiently to test. The tight calendar has succeeded in its goal of producing a nominee early, allowing Democrats maximum time to focus on the real enemy, Mr Bush. But it may also have stampeded the party into a choice too soon.

Nonetheless, Mr Kerry's recovery has been astounding. At the start of 2003, he was the presumptive front-runner, only for his campaign to lose its way as Mr Dean's insurgency caught fire across the country.

By November, when he sacked his campaign manager and other senior staff, Mr Kerry's support was in single figures nationally. The first turning point, however, was the appointment of Mary Beth Cahill, a former chief of staff of his fellow Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, who quickly established a clear command structure.

Even more important was Mr Kerry's decision, opposed by some of his advisers, to stake all on Iowa, whose January 19 caucuses kicked off the primary season. Helped by a series of missteps by Mr Dean, he scored an unexpected victory, and never looked back.

Buoyed by victory in New Hampshire the following week, Mr Kerry went on to win 27 of the 30 primaries and caucuses thus far, against just one victory apiece with Mr Edwards, retired general Wesley Clark and Mr Dean.

- INDEPENDENT and REUTERS