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Still Life With Candidate

The "I'm John Kerry, Bitch!" factor

Iy-iy-iy! From happyfunpundit

Another Sunday in springtime, another sheaf of fresh testimonials to the insubstantiality of the Kerry campaign. The plainest way of putting the question is, how can Bush lose ground by the shovelful in public esteem without getting swamped by Kerry in the electoral polls?

The CW answer: Kerry has yet to define his campaign. He's got no story to tell, about himself or about GWB. I've now read a dozen iterations of that story in the past couple of months, and it's no less true than it was when the LAT's Ron Brownstein first wrote it back in February or early March. (Here's the latest, from Sunday's NYT.)

I've got news for you: If Kerry's campaign is ever "defined," it will be in spite of him. He is too cautious and too imperious by nature to exert himself overmuch. Why should he have to, after all? Remember the grounds on which Kerry almost lost the nomination that was his for the taking at the start. He showed up in Iowa, and elsewhere, bereft of message or fire and presented himself as the functionary whose turn it was to head the Democratic ticket. After rising briefly from the dead on the Iowa stump--albeit by speaking in the borrowed cadences of Howard Dean--Kerry has reverted to form.

So it's Bush v. Bush, with Kerry dancing round the perimeter of the ring hoping he'll knock himself out. He might. Anyhow it's a novel way to run a presidential campaign.

James Ridgeway at the Voice has actually called for Kerry's head. If only it could be so.    

Posted by Steve Perry at May 2, 2004 1:43 PM

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