As Kerry surges, feistiness seen slipping

"Just a couple of days ago, the administration promised America several million jobs over the course of the next months, and I immediately said that those predictions would fall short based on the promises they made with respect to the tax cut, which was supposed to give a million jobs -- it lost a million -- and the next tax cut was supposed to produce a million jobs, and it lost a million," Kerry told reporters, going on to cite more statistics and insist that his plan is better than Bush's.

Kerry's remarks lasted three minutes, yet it left TV reporters without a soundbite until one CBS News producer asked the Massachusetts senator to try again.

"They don't know what they're talking about in their own economic policy," Kerry said of the Bush team. "Today it's one thing, tomorrow it's the next."

Take two was the sort of succinct, wry comment for which Edwards, not Kerry, became known among many Wisconsin voters in the run-up to their primary Tuesday, which Kerry won despite a surprising surge from the North Carolina senator.

Kerry's punchy side, so evident as he battled from behind to win Iowa and New Hampshire in January, has been far less visible since he became the party's front-runner. Instead, political analysts say, a certain woodenness in Kerry's public presentation returned this month, reminiscent of his style a year ago when he was the race's early favorite in the polls.

The reason for his changing style, advisers to Kerry say, can be found throughout his political career: He always performs best when he is an underdog, when he is down and counted out, when he is being challenged. "People who know me say I'm a strong closer," Kerry said more than once during his dark days in Iowa, when he was far down in the polls.

With Howard Dean out of the race as of yesterday, both the news media and voters are now likely to zero in on the styles of Kerry and Edwards, to some extent judging them against each other. "The comparisons are going to be very tough for John Kerry, who has just come across as so cautious and tense as a front-runner," said Don Kettl, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "Edwards makes a lot more effort not only to smile and be personable, but to connect with voters in a way that makes them smile. Kerry often comes off more combative and connects all of his comments to Bush -- he doesn't draw much of a laugh or a grin from people, and just gives off this grim anti-Bush determination."

Edwards tweaked Kerry at a candidates' debate in Milwaukee Sunday night, saying of Kerry's response to one point, "That's the longest answer I've ever heard to a yes or no question."

But Kerry was blunt yesterday in challenging an attempt by Edwards to draw distinctions between where the two senators stand on trade. Kerry voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement, while after its implementation, Edwards opposed the treaty when he ran for the Senate.

"We have the same policy on trade," Kerry said. "He voted for the China trade agreement; so did I. And both of us want to have labor agreements and environment agreements as part of a trade agreement."

Stylistically, Edwards has shown a talent for projecting sunny optimism, according to political analysts from Iowa to New Hampshire to Wisconsin, while Kerry has gone from loose and funny in his weeks on the ropes to "more stiff and less charismatic" than Edwards, Kettl said.

Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.