Herald Sun - The woman who posed the question said she had just flown back from Australia where she had seen a sign on a boat reading "Improve world order, kill an American today".
The comment generated a lengthy, heated discussion of US foreign policy.
Senator Kerry said: "Never in 35 years have I seen the United States as much the target, as much sort of derided and disrespected as we are today, where Americans when they travel abroad are at risk."
The former naval officer in the Vietnam War, criticised President George W. Bush as having an almost exclusively military response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Democratic Senator Bob Graham of Florida, appearing with Mr Kerry at meeting, said Americans could expect more antagonism from foreigners if Mr Bush was re-elected.
"What this president has done, rather than try to use the full range of American power, is we have erected a giant billboard recruiting for al-Qaeda on the main street of virtually every city in the Middle East and central Asia," he said.
"Is that the kind of leadership that we want to ratify for another four years?"
There is no doubt that Bush has created rancor among the citizens of this earth who believe that there is no conflict that can't be solved by either walking away from it or signing a treaty. But who cares what those people think? The type of person who would put up a sign saying "kill an American" isn't going to like our country no matter what we do. I believe that when you are faced with an enemy who is willing to engage in ruthless suicide attacks on innocent citizens the only response is to take the fight to them.
Of course our war in Iraq has made the type of person who would join a group like al Qaeda go ahead and do so. But notice that while al Qaeda has been busy fighting our soldiers in Iraq they haven't had time to launch any attacks on our citizens at home. That doesn't mean they won't be able try an attack in the near or distant future but I'm thinking that they're resources for attacks like that are finite and that a vast majority of them are being used in Iraq right now.
Better that the fight be over there then in the streets of New York or Chicago.
So yes, Bush's leadership is what I want for the next four years. He's had the courage to take the fight to our enemies rather than trying to hid behind treaties and waiting for them to attack us so that we are "justified" in attacking them.