BANGOR – It didn’t take John Kerry’s weekend victories in Michigan, Washington and Maine to convince Republicans that the Massachusetts senator would be their most likely opponent in November.

Although the Bush campaign’s standard line, “It’s too early to tell,” remained in effect this weekend, White House allies – including those in Maine – set their sights on the Democratic front-runner weeks ago, seeking to paint him as a New England liberal weak on defense.

At Saturday’s Penobscot County Republican caucus in Bangor, none of the featured speakers – including U.S. Sen. Susan Collins – mentioned Kerry by name while addressing the crowd of about 170 party faithful.

The focus, at least during the event’s formalities, was on the president, whom Collins praised, in order, for his policies on Iraq, education and taxes.

Maine’s junior senator, who will campaign for Bush during the summer and fall, also suggested to those in attendance that the president’s slumping approval ratings meant little with the election still nine months away.

“There will be good days and bad days,” Collins told the crowd at Husson College, where the party gathered to select delegates to the state convention in May. “The polls will change and we have to continue our steady path to victory.”

With wins in Virginia and Tennessee Tuesday, Kerry could leave little doubt about who will challenge Bush. Wins in the back yards of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and retired Gen. Wesley Clark of Arkansas would likely cause both to reassess their candidacies.

It was not long ago that the prospect of Kerry systematically knocking out his rivals – including the once formidable former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean – was far-fetched.

While Collins, after her Saturday speech, praised Kerry for his resolve in not abandoning his once floundering campaign, she did draw a distinction between her Senate colleague and Bush.

“One of the president’s great strengths is he is clearly a leader of conviction,” Collins said, commenting on charges that Kerry has tempered his votes supporting the Iraq war and Bush’s education initiatives for political gain. “You never get the feeling [Bush] is trimming the sails to fit the latest public opinion polls.”

Collins’ criticism of Kerry was – like Collins herself -moderate compared to that offered last week by the Maine Republican Party.

Last week, party officials took a page out of Dean’s campaign book, blasting Kerry for accepting special interest money despite campaigning against it.

“Contributors with direct interests before him have flown him on trips and lined the pockets of his campaign,” Peter Cianchette, Bush’s Maine chairman, said in a statement. “John Kerry is demonstrating the ultimate hypocrisy by campaigning on something that contradicts his record.”

Party officials also seized upon a recent visit from U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to paint Kerry as a liberal akin to the Democrats’ 1988 nominee Michael Dukakis.

“Ted Kennedy might have the reputation as a liberal, but John Kerry has even more of a record of out-of-touch votes to back it up,” Cianchette said in a statement. “On economic policy, on national security policy and on social issues, John Kerry is simply out of sync with most voters.”

Portraying Kerry as an aloof liberal could play well in the all-important South, some analysts suggest, where Bush rolled over the Democrats’ 2000 nominee, former Vice President Al Gore.

Kerry, in a Saturday speech at a Nashville university, rejected the label, and vowed to go head to head with Bush there.

“This administration is busy trying to paint everybody else as out of touch, out of sync, somehow out of the mainstream,” Kerry said. “But let me tell you something: I’m not worried about coming down South and talking to people about jobs, schools, health care and the environment. I think it’s the president who ought to worry about coming down here.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.