North Las Vegas- With less than a day to go before the Nevada caucuses, 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) was in North Las Vegas today pumping up campaign volunteers for Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) before they set out for a morning canvas.

Kerry surprised many last week by coming out for Obama rather than his ’04 running mate, former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) or fellow senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY).

Kerry said that Obama had “more legislative experience that either of the other two” and pointed to the relative ages of other famous Americans when they left their marks on the country.

“Martin Luther King was 26-years-old when he led the Montgomery boycott,” said Kerry.  “34-years-old when he inspired the country forever with the words at the Lincoln Memorial.  Abraham Lincoln served only one term, two years in the United States Congress.  He was defeated, sent home in shame, ran for the senate, lost his race for the senate, then was nominated for the presidency.”

Kerry also discussed Thomas Jefferson’s 33 years of age when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.  Obama is 46.

Kerry’s endorsement of Obama was interpreted by many in the media as a dig at his former running mate, but Kerry said today that “they could not be more wrong.”

“The Des Moines Register endorsed [Edwards] in 2004; this year they endorsed Sen. Clinton.  This is a different time.  I chose [Obama] because he’s the right person at this moment.”

Kerry stressed that he had “nothing negative” to say about any of the other candidates and that his “heart goes out to all of them” for having to deal with the exhaustive pace of presidential campaigning.