Kerry urges higher US priority for science

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Campaigning at the heart of the US space program, Democratic presidential hopeful John F. Kerry said yesterday that America needs a leader who will ''push the curve of discovery" in science as president, and he urged independents and Republicans to give his candidacy a look, suggesting Republicans should stop automatically voting for politicians from their own party.

Working after just a few hours' sleep following a surprise appearance at the Red-Sox Yankees game and a midnight flight, Kerry appeared a little rusty and tired at a forum in the Kennedy Space Center. But the partisan crowd appeared delighted that Kerry chose to spend the first day of the Democratic National Convention with them.

Kerry said he aspired to set ground-breaking goals, like President John F. Kennedy's call in the early 1960s to put a man on the moon.

''We need to push the curve of discovery -- we need a president who believes in science and who's prepared to invest America's efforts to cure Parkinson's and AIDS and diabetes and Alzheimer's and do stem-cell research. Let's go forward."

The Massachusetts senator seized on the imagery of space flight, sightseeing at the Kennedy Center's Rocket Garden and with former astronauts John Glenn and Bill Nelson (former and current US senators, respectively), took a close look at a replica of the Mercury Atlas that Glenn flew on his historic Earth orbit in 1962. At one point, Kerry and the others donned tight-fitting sanitary ''bunny suits" and hoods to tour a sterile shuttle area.