Feels like Democratic spirit Scenes from the Rhode Island delegation’s visit to the DNC BY IAN DONNIS

BOSTON — WITH THE glaring exception of the Supreme Court-ordered outcome, the 2000 presidential election offered its share of pride for Rhode Island Democrats. The nation’s smallest state gave Al Gore his largest plurality, and unlike in New Hampshire or Florida, those straying Dems with a hankering for alternative politics could vote for Ralph Nader, safe in the knowledge that the Ocean State’s mighty four electoral votes would still go to the Democratic candidate. You could almost hear the state shouting as one, Hey, we did our part.

This time around, Rhode Island delegates hope to symbolically ramp it up by delivering a higher percentage of the vote for John F. Kerry than he receives in his home state of Massachusetts. As demonstrated by Gore’s Monday night jibe about how he doesn’t fall asleep counting and recounting sheep, the aftermath of the 2000 debacle still hangs in the air like a persistent bad smell. For the most part, though, the thousands of fervent activists gathered here for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) are playing down the rhetorical edges and putting on a positive face while targeting the ouster of George W. Bush. As Allene Maynard, 65, a delegate from Providence, put it during a Tuesday luncheon at the Boston Marriott at Copley Place, "I think the election is more about the future."

The challenge, of course, lies largely in expanding Democratic support beyond the predictable bastions of southern New England and maximizing the turnout of potentially sympathetic swing voters. For activists like Maynard, a state committee member for the last 15 years, this translates into talking with out-of-town visitors in her day-to-day life, encouraging them to vote and spreading the message, although she also pronounces herself prepared to take on "whatever I can do across the country."

As evidenced by the string of opening night speakers representing different elements of the Democratic party — teachers, choice supporters, the disabled, second-generation immigrants, and others — conventions are largely about conveying a broad message that can carry the candidate to victory. Asked what she hopes to take away from the event, state Senator Hanna Gallo (D-Cranston), a delegate, says, "I’d like to be a part of the change, part of making the change happen."

Delegate Marcia Reback, executive director of the American Federation of Teachers and Healthcare Professionals, says, "I want to see John Kerry take off like a rocket. I’d like to see him energize the public, particularly the battleground states. I think Bush is going to turn it around himself [because of] the war in Iraq, which was illegal from the beginning."

With the November election barely three months away, the Rhode Island delegation’s presence at the DNC represents different things: a busman’s holiday for civic junkies, yet also an opportunity to cultivate ties for the flow of future campaign contributions.

On Monday, insurgent also-ran Howard Dean and actor Ben Affleck, offering a populist critique of the Bush administration, turned up at a welcoming breakfast hosted at the Marriott by US Senator Jack Reed. By late afternoon, delegates and other guests were basking dockside, hoisting Coronas and snacking on cocktail shrimp and chicken skewers on the yacht Ibex at Commercial Wharf. The opening night of the convention, with speeches by Gore and Bill Clinton stirring the party faithful, was still to come. Jesse Jackson, Bob Kerrey, and James Carville were spotted around town. Speaking of the four-day mix of politicking and schmoozing, William Lynch, chairman of the Rhode Island Democratic Party, says, "If you enjoy politics, it’s like being at the Super Bowl."

In the minds of Democrats, though, the party will most certainly be over should Bush win a second term. After running as a moderate, the scion of a GOP dynasty has governed as something far different, launching a preemptive war that may have sown the seeds of his political destruction. The war has apparently supplanted the economy as the leading issue on the minds of voters, although Bush, paradoxically, still seems to retain implicit backing from a large section of the electorate as a more resolute leader. Little wonder that a common refrain offered by convention guests and delegates is how this election is the most important one in their lives

AFTER PREDICTIONS of gridlock and other commuting nightmares, Boston has remained an easy city to get around in during the opening days of the convention. Despite glimmers of opportunity, the path to the presidency will probably be more challenging for Kerry. It’s easy to forget in Boston, which has been transformed into a kind of Democratic nirvana through the presence of more than 30,000 activists, but large portions of the country tend to see things in quite a different way.

The belief that Kerry can do a better job leading the US in the post-9/11 age of anxiety nonetheless permeates the DNC. During the convention’s opening night, one of the images that steadily appeared on a giant screen circling the FleetCenter was the legend, "A Stronger America," accompanied by a cheery red background with simulated fireworks exploding in the background.

Jack Reed has the kind of national security credentials — he’s a West Point graduate and former Army Ranger who serves on the Armed Services Committee — that lend strength to the Democratic case. In terms of the task facing Kerry and John Edwards on this front, Reed told me, "I think they have to demonstrate their experience and their expertise." He offered a reminder that Kerry is a combat veteran of Vietnam, and said Edwards has "a discerning intellect that will be obvious in the campaign."

For the converted, the war in Iraq — from its preemptive start to the many bungles along the way — points to the need for some big changes. As Reed notes, in a theme repeated at the convention, the US "is now considered to be a nation without friends in the world. We can’t do anything without a collaborative effort." And even with homeland security rhetoric emanating from the White House, he says, relatively little of it has been adequately backed up — a finding articulated in alarming detail by the national September 11 commission last week.

Given all this, you don’t have to be a fan of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, with its share of unflattering footage of the president’s syntax-challenged remarks, to think the administration lacks in judgment and other national security skills. So why do the Democrats still face a seemingly uphill battle on this issue?

Reed says the perception among some that Democrats are weak on defense is a legacy of the last 25 or 30 years. And the simplistic outlook of the Bush White House — in which the president suggests a black-and-white view of complex global geopolitics — has "a certain appeal to people."

GOP efforts to caricature Kerry in recent months seem to have had little effect, leaving the opportunity for the candidate to define himself. Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, a delegate, holds out hope that once voters learn more about Kerry, "The Republicans will lose that advantage [of incumbency] quickly." Cicilline, who attended the 2000 Democratic convention in Los Angeles, says this one feels very different, adding, "I think our party has never been more united."

Democratic chief Lynch says he believes that GOP efforts to paint Kerry aren’t going to work, "because he’s not a super-liberal. People are too sophisticated. I think that’s the main difference" with 1988 when the Republicans were able to successfully pummel another native son, then-Massachusetts governor Michael S. Dukakis. "He’s a fighter. He will not back down. He will stand toe to toe with George Bush."

In one of the more compelling moments of a strong speech on Monday, Clinton described the Republicans as the party of division and the Democrats as the party of unity. Still, even some of those fond of Clinton give him some blame for damaging the party with his own lapse in judgment with Monica Lewinsky.

"He lied, but nobody got killed," responds Lynch. Speaking to the difference between the tryst and the misleading information from the White House that smoothed the path to war, he adds, "That’s a big difference in my opinion."