BOSTON, Massachusetts, July 29 (AFP) - Having officially donned the mantle of Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry now has three months to sell his complex and reserved persona to undecided voters.
A decorated Vietnam veteran who went on to become a spokesman for the anti-war movement, Kerry is a difficult man to pin down and a tough candidate to package.
Supporters, while acknowledging his sometimes stiff demeanour, champion his intelligence and experience, and see in his decision to criticise the Vietnam War the same courage that earned him Silver and Bronze Stars fighting it.
Detractors see an opportunistic streak which, they say, has caused the four-term senator to shift stances as his undeniable political ambition dictates.
The debate is muddied by Kerry himself. His detached, and some say aloof, personal style has hampered his efforts to carve a clear picture of his candidacy in the minds of those who will cast their ballots on November 2.
Prior to the Democractic National Convention, both Time and Newsweek ran cover profiles of the 60-year-old Massachusetts senator, titled respectively: "What Makes John Kerry Tick?" and "In Search of John Kerry."
"Now I know there are those who criticize me for seeing complexities," Kerry acknowledged in his nomination acceptance speech at the convention on Thursday.
"And I do. Because some issues just aren't all that simple," he said.
His speech was also notable for incorporating a wealth of biographical material, stretching from his birth, through his youth, his military service in Vietnam, his work as a public prosecutor and his 20 years in the US Senate.
"I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as president," he said. "I ask you to judge me by my record."
Born December 11, 1943 in Denver, Colorado, Kerry's formative years were spent in boarding schools in New England and Switzerland, as his family followed his diplomat father's postings in Boston and Washington, Berlin and Oslo.
It was a disruptive lifestyle that Kerry once told his biographer had made him somewhat withdrawn.
"I was always saying goodbye, and it steeled you," he said.
His early education was followed by a stint at a a prestigious high school in New Hampshire and then Yale University, where he joined the secretive Skull and Bones club -- just as Bush would do several years later.
After graduating with a law degree in 1966, Kerry entered the military and like tens of thousands of other young American men was sent to fight in Vietnam.
It was to become a defining experience in his life and lead to his entry into politics, although his drift in that direction had begun much earlier when, as a teenager, he campaigned for his idol John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.
At one point, Kerry dated Jacqueline Kennedy's half sister and even went sailing with JFK.
As a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam, Kerry commanded a gunboat patrolling the Mekong Delta, earning three Purple Hearts along with his decorations for valour.
His military record has been pushed heavily by his campaign team, seeking to secure his credentials on the key issue of national security and also to draw comparisons with President Bush, who joined the Texas Air National Guard, which did not see active duty in Vietnam.
On his return home, Kerry became an eloquent spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
He helped organize a huge anti-war protest outside Congress in Washington in 1971, and managed to earn a place on president Richard Nixon's notorious "enemies' list."
That same year, 27-year-old Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, earning headlines with his eloquent remark: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
After a failed bid for Congress in 1972, Kerry served as a prosecutor in Massachusetts and went into private practice before he was elected lieutenant governor of the state in 1982.
Two years later he was elected to the US Senate. He has been re-elected three times since, though often overshadowed in the house by fellow Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.
His Republican opponents have scoured his Senate voting record in order to highlight inconsistencies. Although sharply critical of US policy in Iraq, he voted for military intervention there.
Other critics have questioned Kerry's championing of American blue-collar workers and the unemployed during his campaign, pointing to his privileged upbringing and marriage to multi-millionaire ketchup heiress, Teresa Heinz -- his second wife.