New York ? Watching John Kerry take the stage, arching his long finger and stabbing the air with yet another denunciation of the Bush administration, it was clear that he was dying to have George Bush all to himself.

Now he does. Methodically, Kerry knocked off his Democratic opponents for the party’s presidential nomination. Tuesday, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina became the last serious rival to fall to Kerry.

So what now?

In one more week, four Southern states hold primaries. Kerry will test his message in a region that’s not particularly friendly to Democrats, especially “liberals” from Massachusetts.

The biggest prize next week is Florida, and today Kerry is scheduled to be in Orlando for a rally and a meeting with donors.

Campaign aides said they plan to air television ads in the Sunshine State, with an eye on November’s general election. For Democrats, Florida remains the coulda-shoulda-woulda state of the 2000 presidential election, and Kerry wants to lay the groundwork early.

After a day off in his hometown of Boston, Kerry will spend the weekend in the other three states — Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — honing his campaign against Bush and preparing for the $100 million tidal wave of advertising from the Bush-Cheney campaign, which will begin airing ads Thursday in 17 states that are likely to be battlegrounds in November. Initial ads will be positive, focusing on Bush’s accomplishments during his presidency, aides said.

The liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org also will run ads, also in 17 states, criticizing Bush’s labor policies.

Democratic strategists don’t expect Kerry to match the Bush campaign’s fund raising, but they say the combined efforts of the Kerry campaign, MoveOn.org and other Democratic-leaning groups could total about $90 million.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, center, D-Mass. with daughter, Vanessa, left, stepson, Chris Heinz, second from right, and wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, right, celebrates primary victories. Kerry was reveling in the news Tuesday he won eight of nine primaries as well as the Minnesota caucuses.

“We will be ready to step into the breach after the nominee is effectively chosen to offer cover against the onslaught of ads” from the president, said Jim Jordan, a spokesman for America Coming Together, the Media Fund and America Votes, three liberal groups raising money to combat Bush.

‘Newer John Kerry’

The campaign has seasoned Kerry; it has sharpened his message and put him at ease among people. But some habits, such as his tendency to over-explain and embrace both sides of an issue, die hard.

“He should hold on to the newer John Kerry and not give 20-minute answers to questions,” said Lynn Cutler, a Democratic lobbyist and former Clinton White House aide.

As Kerry leaves the Democratic primaries behind, doubts about his ability to take a clear stand on issues linger. They provide an opening for Republican ads to portray Kerry as an inveterate waffler. From Iraq to Israel, from trade to gay marriage, Kerry has been forced to explain himself, and his answers aren’t always simple. Asked about Iraq at Sunday’s debate in New York, his answer began with “it depends.”

Kerry can still be the oratorical and convoluted Washington insider. But the campaign has taught him how to reach people. He can be a loose ad-libber, riffing off the audience and cracking the sober Herman Munster stiffness that cartoonists lampoon.

“He’s so much better in person than on television,” marveled Marlene Mack, a 62-year-old grandmother, after Kerry appeared at a Teamsters rally last week in Oakland, Calif.

In a televised debate the night before, Mack said, “he seemed to sort of edge around the questions. Here he seemed to be more — of course he didn’t have questions asked — but he was more direct.”

Position changes

Kerry allies and critics both point to a number of topics on which Kerry has switched or altered positions.

Kerry once said that the Defense of Marriage Act, which declares that marriage is only between a man and a woman and that no state must recognize a gay marriage performed in another state, was “fundamentally unconstitutional.” Last week in Los Angeles, he conceded: ” I was incorrect in that statement.”

In October, he told members of the Arab-American community that a security fence separating Israel from Palestinian territories was a “barrier to peace.” In an interview with the Jerusalem Post last week, he said: “Israel’s security fence is a legitimate act of self defense.”

Last week, he chided the Bush administration for offering Iraqi security forces “the most rudimentary training,” and said that while Bush promised a Marshall Plan to rebuild Afghanistan, his budget “scorns that commitment.”

But Kerry voted against spending $87 billion to reconstruct Iraq and Afghanistan, and on the campaign trail he often says Bush shouldn’t be “opening firehouses in Baghdad and shutting them in the United States.”

While Kerry’s people skills have improved markedly, voters are aware of his privileged background and approach him warily.

David Dean, 54, an unemployed sheet-metal worker from Columbus, Ohio, said he would vote for Kerry even though he thought Edwards would connect better with voters.

Is Kerry a man he’d care to have a beer with?

Dean pondered the question.

“Depends on how many I’ve had, I guess.”