BOSTON – On the giant video screen that looms above the stage at the Democratic National Convention, John Edwards’ now signature smile stretched at least five feet wide.

The North Carolina senator, in receiving the convention’s vice presidential nomination Wednesday evening, told the packed convention hall to reject “the tired, old, hateful, negative politics of the past” and accused Republicans of trying to take “this campaign for the highest office in the land down to the lowest possible road.”

“Instead you can embrace the politics of hope, the politics of what’s possible because this is America, where everything is possible,” Edwards said, evoking images of his own rise from a mill worker’s son to a multimillionaire lawyer and U.S. senator.

Edwards spoke shortly before delegates officially nominated Massachusetts Senator John Kerry for the presidency.

Edwards’ prime-time address was an expanded variation on his stock “two Americas” primary campaign speech, a deftly delivered comment on a country increasingly divided into rich and poor.

But on Wednesday, Edwards, a first-term senator, also spent much of his time on the FleetCenter stage lauding the national security credentials of his presidential running mate.

Edwards, who was greeted by a sea of undulating red, rectangular signs bearing his name, has been a popular choice among Democrats, including those within the 35-member Maine delegation.

“He solidified my belief that the Democratic party is heading in the right direction,” said delegate Ed Desgrosseilliers of Auburn, then using a line repeated throughout Edwards’ address: “Hope is on the way.”

The speech was part of a concerted effort to convince voters it is safe to replace President Bush despite the continuing Iraq war, a central campaign issue that polls show have divided Americans. Those same polls, however, show voters favoring Bush to wage a war on terrorism.

Edwards on Wednesday argued the country would best be served by Kerry, a decorated war hero who better knows the human cost of war.

“Some of our friends and neighbors saw their last images in Baghdad,” Edwards said, citing examples of soldiers wounded in the Iraq War. “They deserve a president who understands on the most personal level what they have gone through.”

In keeping with the convention’s tight security and seemingly the campaign’s focus on national security, Kerry arrived in the city Wednesday by water, his ferry escorted by Coast Guard vessels armed with 240-mm machine guns.

Today, Kerry will accept the party’s nomination for president, thus beginning what promises to be a close contest for the White House. Most national polls have Kerry slightly ahead of the Republican president with a little more than three months until Election Day.

While convening Democrats have dominated the airwaves in the past three days, GOP surrogates on Wednesday sought to shoot holes in the blanket media coverage.

“There has been a total avoidance of discussion of the voting record of John Kerry, but that’s not surprising,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., raising questions about both Democratic contenders’ national security credentials, citing their spotty attendance of late in the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Republicans will hold their convention next month in New York City.

While Wednesday’s focus was on security and terrorism, polls show the Kerry-Edwards ticket has consistently bested Bush on domestic issues – including education and healthcare. They are among the most pressing issues consistently cited by women, expected to be a critical voting bloc this November.

In a Washington Post/ABC poll ending July 25, the day before the Democratic convention, the Kerry-Edwards ticket held a 52-percent to 41-percent lead among women in a three-way race and a 55-43 lead in a two-way race.

Women’s issues were the topic for Maine delegates earlier in the day at a breakfast briefing by Ann Richards, who served as Texas governor until Bush defeated her 10 years ago.

Richards, who gave the keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic convention when she was Texas treasurer, urged the delegates to get the vote out in November for Kerry so programs important to women can be preserved.

Elaine Makas, a Kerry delegate and state representative from Lewiston, said she believed the Kerry-Edwards ticket, unlike the GOP alternative, would more closely listen to women’s voices – including their wives’ – in addressing women’s issues.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.