Kerry, Democrats still have work to do

Energized by an early date and united by a desire to oust President Bush from office, Nevada's Democratic Party faithful turned out in force on Valentine's Day for one of the most successful presidential caucuses in memory.

They are to be congratulated for creating a sense of urgency in their party's nominating process. But now that they've lined up behind Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, they still have a lot of work to do to convince other voters that Kerry should, indeed, be the nation's next president.

It helped significantly that Saturday's precinct caucuses, at least a month earlier than usual, arrived on the calendar while there was still some debate. While many people went to the neighborhood meetings with other candidates in mind, such as Howard Dean, John Edwards and Wesley Clark, the theme became "Who can beat Bush?" Their answer was Kerry.

But they still must convince Nevada voters - specifically, the not-so-passionate bystanders who would never consider attending a party caucus - he is better than Bush. They'll need to get some help from their candidate to do so.

Bush's record is there to be attacked, and so far that's been Kerry's strategy. But at some point he's going to have to clarify his stands in the past and promote some ideas that can excite voters for the future.

Kerry's convoluted reasoning on the Iraq war - voting for it, then not for the funds to continue the rebuilding - has left him wide open to second-guessing. His economic policy - roll back the tax cuts, spend more on education and health-care - will get summed up as a tax-and-spend Democratic agenda.

In Nevada, Kerry has sounded the right note: Bush acceded to special interests over sound science when he approved a nuclear-waste repository for Yucca Mountain. That's what we expect Kerry to say. We also expect him to come up with his own promise, and a plan that would resolve the country's nuclear-waste dilemma without making Nevada the last depot for the dump train.

Berating Bush may be enough to win the nomination, but it won't be enough to win the election. Not in Nevada, anyway.