Kerry's broadcast keeps its focus

MOLINE, Ill. -- At 11:30 a.m. yesterday, Senator John F. Kerry had hoped that television sets across Iowa and western Illinois would be tuning into his unusual, live broadcast of a free-for-all featuring the presidential candidate fielding questions from 45 undecided voters whom he was seeking to woo.

But Saddam Hussein was found in a hole in the ground half a world away, and the high point of Kerry's week was scrambled a bit.

The show must go on, the Kerry campaign decided, and in fact the broadcast, shown a half-hour later than scheduled, may have drawn even more viewers than originally expected, since network news reports about Hussein's capture led directly into Kerry's "infomercial."

Kerry, who spent the morning making a round of TV appearances in which he hailed Hussein's capture but blasted Bush for going to war without an international coalition, spent relatively little time at his 30-minute "live town hall" talking about Iraq. He said "we deserve diplomacy that's as good as our troops" and urged voters to back him as the Democratic candidate with the best foreign policy expertise who could unseat a wartime president.

In spite of the news of the day, Hussein was the focus of only one of the nine questions asked by the audience, which was selected by an independent consulting group; the other questions ranged from Kerry's stands on abortion rights to financial support for disabled Americans.

One voter asked about Kerry's spiritual background, noting that President Bush's identification as a Christian appeared to be a defining feature of his outlook. Kerry noted that he was baptized and confirmed as a Catholic and served as an altar boy, and later wore a rosary around his neck during his two tours of duty in Vietnam. He also said he had once considered becoming a priest.

"In New England we tend to be more personal in our faith and not throw it at people," Kerry said, in an implicit contrast with Bush, who once described Jesus Christ as a major philosophical influence in his life.

Among the audience, which Kerry aides heavily touted as undecided, not campaign "plants," some said they had previously attended Kerry events, and one of them described himself as a Kerry supporter. One participant, by contrast, said she was a volunteer for the campaign of Kerry rival Howard Dean.

Yesterday's forum was intended specifically to sway undecided voters, in the television studio here and watching on seven television stations that carried the broadcast; the typical campaign events tend to draw hard-core Kerry supporters in large numbers.

Most independent polls have put Kerry in third place among the Democratic candidates running in the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses. His campaign, however, is aiming for a second-place upset and issued an internal Kerry poll yesterday that showed him in a second-place tie with Gephardt, with 24 and 23 percentage points respectively. Dean was in first place with 28 percent.

Patrick Healy can be reached by e-mail at phealy@globe.com.