There is no question that this week of reinvention has been politically shrewd. Of course, it's been a total drag act-- the moderate, hawkish mask that they are wearing simply can't survive any scrutiny of Kerry's far Left record.
But the show has been good. I can't see how they don't get a significant bump (it would be even larger if America was actually watching it). Despite the unusually low ratings, bites have been played on morning coffee shows, local newscasts, and radio. The campaign pitch in Boston (not the flubbed one Kerry through at Fenway) will make the ticket more sellable among the coveted swing voters in the soft Red States.
Having said that, I think Kerry was the worst thing about these four days. I didn't think he was good at all tonight. He was divisive and boring. As a Bush supporter, I don't fear Kerry. It wasn't at all like last night, Edwards smiling, happy face and lovely, Rockwellian family make me very nervous.
Kerry's surrogates are outstanding. The "Band of Brothers" and Cleland and the Edwards are very effective. It remains to be seen whether or not Kerry's Hollywood friends will help him, but his buddies in the news media will assist him greatly.
Are the Bushies up to countering these four days? I'm not sure. The Kerry message--we can return to innocence and normalcy if we toss Bush out-- is seductive. There is anxiety out there. Iraq, outsourcing and "the middle class squeeze" have created electorate unease.
I think Kerry and the Left are behaving terribly irresponsibly by appealing to people's fears and doubts. Kerry is being carried by Moore's bogus conspiracy theories, casualty fatigue and by the nation's softness. Kerry's Vietnamization of Iraq is a terrible thing to do. It might be good for him politically to drown the nation in the Mekong, but it's not good for the Country.
It has got to cheer our enemies that America is in a Vietnam state of mind. And now it looks more likely than not that a Vietnam obsessed Francophile with a wretched national security record will be the next President of the United States.
Perhaps it's just a hunch, but I think we will be hit if Kerry gets elected. Why do I think that? By shooting the strong horse and going with a dove like Kerry (who is merely playing the hawk this week to get elected), our enemies will conclude that we are in retreat. It's like when the Jews left south Lebanon, the retreat invited the second intifada. Our enemies will rightly conclude if they hit us at home, we will abandon our increasingly unpopular war in Iraq.
Over the course of these four days, the Dems have waved the American flag-- something they don't like to do. They consider flag-waving similar to goose stepping, but they sucked it up to help get Kerry elected. It was good tv, but not real tv.
The truest image of this campaign was when a Fox News reporter panned down to the Fleet Center's floor and showed that the delegates had tossed the flags on the ground like garbage.
I rarely agree with the Raging Cajun on anything, but Carville is right when he says that Bush will have to run the campaign of his life to keep the Presidency.