Democrats make Kerry’s nomination final, official

John Kerry was nominated as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate on Wednesday night after running mate John Edwards praised the Massachusetts senator as a decisive and battle-tested leader and urged voters to embrace the politics of hope over what he called a low-road campaign by the Republicans.

Vowing ‘‘no retreat, no surrender,’’ Kerry swept into this convention city on Wednesday, surrounded by a dozen Vietnam War crewmates aboard a ship in Boston Harbour. He then yielded the spotlight to Edwards, who was his last major rival in the Democratic primary battle and the popular choice within the party to team with Kerry in the campaign ahead against President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Edwards quickly showed off the rhetorical skills that carried him from the plaintiff’s bench to the Senate and eventually to the thick of the Democratic race. He promised that ‘‘hope is on the way’’ as he pledged that Kerry would keep the country safe, fix intelligence capabilities, expand access to health care, create jobs and heal the country’s racial and economic divisions. He never mentioned Bush or Cheney by name — a departure from the traditional vice-presidential role of leading the attack against the opposition. —LAT-WP