A tall, rugged, blue-blood millionaire war hero from Massachusetts with the initials JFK, Senator John Forbes Kerry rose from the political dead to claim the right to challenge President George W. Bush.
An early bet as the Democrats' best hope to win the White House on November 2, he was running way behind in last year's pre-primary polls in Iowa and New Hampshire but recovered ground as voters took a second look at the field and rewarded him with a stunning comeback in the contests.
Since wrapping up the Democratic presidential nomination in March, Kerry has broken party fund-raising records, raking in almost $150 million by tapping into the Internet and a fervent desire among supporters to oust Bush.
He also has held the Republican incumbent to a virtual draw in national polls despite the better-financed Bush campaign's $80 million advertising effort to portray him as an irresolute North-eastern liberal who flip-flops on important issues like the Iraq War.
The sometimes stiff four-term senator from Massachusetts chose as his vice presidential running mate a former rival and a freshman senator from North Carolina short on political experience but long on personal vigor, good looks and enthusiasm.
"Obviously I chose John Edwards for the reasons that you're seeing," Kerry told Reuters in a recent interview. "There's a lot of energy, I've got a partner to share the burden. We have great optimism and great hope."
Optimism and hope were in short supply last year when Kerry trailed his opponents in the race for the Democratic nomination. But the decorated Vietnam War veteran, who boasted a Yale education, two decades in the Senate and a cadre of experienced advisers, never stopped fighting.
The 60-year-old senator's problems then - and now in the general election campaign - have sprung from his seemingly contradictory stance on the Iraq War. He voted to authorise the US-led invasion, but then criticised Bush for "rushing" into conflict without an international coalition or a post-war plan.
Kerry explained his position by blaming the president for misleading Congress on the evidence used to justify the war.
"The vote was based on the information we had at the time that we had it," he said in the interview. "It was the right vote."
But it was another vote - and another explanation - that gave Republicans valuable ammunition for their bid to portray him as an unpatriotic waffler.
Kerry voted against the president's $87 billion request to support US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and pay for reconstruction in both countries after efforts to offset the cost by repealing some of Bush's tax cuts failed.
Kerry is one of the Senate's richest members, thanks to his second wife's sizeable fortune. Ketchup heiress and philanthropist Teresa Heinz Kerry is the widow of the late Pennsylvania Republican Senator John Heinz.