Kerry says he'd fight better terror war

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said, "Kerry is using this report as a political opportunity. The president has directed his staff to quickly determine how and when he can act on the recommendations, and his leadership on this issue highlights the difference between making campaign statements and making decisions to lead the country."

The commission's recommendations included creating a new intelligence center and Cabinet-level intelligence director. An intelligence-gathering center would bring a unified command to the more than dozen agencies that now collect and analyze intelligence.

Kerry said the commission should issue progress reports every six months, beginning in December. Among the questions they should address, Kerry said, are whether we are doing enough to strengthen homeland security, reorganize intelligence agencies, build global alliances and make America as safe as it can be.

In Boston, Kerry foreign policy adviser Jamie Ruben told reporters that keeping the commission intact would be an effective way to "bird-dog the bureaucracy" on implementing the panel's recommendations.

Kerry is not scheduled to arrive in the convention city of Boston until Wednesday, when he and several of his former Navy crewmates from the Vietnam War will take a boat across the harbor to the Charlestown Navy Yard.

He made one final campaign stop in Philadelphia Tuesday night for a rally with thousands of supporters behind the Philadelphia Art Museum, on top of the steps that Sylvester Stallone famously climbed in "Rocky."

Kerry's pre-convention tour took him to seven states in five days, and his fatigue showed when he mistakenly called the museum a library and was chided by the chuckling crowd.

"I just walked through it and I saw all the art, so I'm not completely dopey," Kerry said.