BIOGRAPHY FIRST (via Flag of the World):

An Eight-Month Run: Starring John Kerry in "Airplane" and George W. Bush in "The Happy Warrior." (Peggy Noonan, March 11, 2004, Wall Street Journal)

Mr. Kerry has a structural weakness on the stump. It's John Kerry. There he was this week on stage in shirtsleeves, with a handheld mike, riffing along. "I have news for George W. Bush . . ." "George Bush said he would be a uniter, but instead he is a divider . . ." "I used to do Elvis . . ." Raspy, pacing back and forth. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn't place it. The blank intensity, the conviction that what's on his mind is important, though he can't quite remember why . . .

And then I had it. Captain Rex Kramer in "Airplane," played by Robert Stack. At the end of the movie he's alone in the tower at the microphone, talking to an empty plane. "Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked in the head with an iron boot? Of course you don't, no one does. It never happens. It's a dumb question. Skip it."

There's the same faintly disturbing aspect to his free associations. Mr. Kerry's voice is like Robert Stack's, the same studied actor's baritone. [...]

Right now the key to Mr. Bush's success in defining both himself and Mr. Kerry is joy. The joy of the battle. And what joyous battlers bring to the proceedings: humor and wit and grace.

The one thing cable TV can't resist, and can't ignore even if it comes from a Republican, is wit. Wit brightens their copy. They love humor and joy. They will use a pithy putdown over and over. That's why Mr. Bush got so much mileage out of even a wan joke about Mr. Kerry having been in Washington long enough to take two sides on every issue.

Mr. President, keep it up but do it better.

Don't make the country mad at John Kerry, make them laugh at John Kerry. And use wit not only for wit's sake but to make political and philosophical points.

This year comedy's a cannon. It's the only thing right now that will break through the media wall.

The other day I was thinking of the White House Correspondents Association Dinner a couple of years ago at which Ozzy Osbourne was the big attraction. He stood up when the president entered the room and gestured to his own long hair. He yelled out something like, "You should grow your hair too." Mr. Bush looked and laughed and shouted, "Second term, Ozzy!" That's the spirit.

A particular danger is lurking in front of Mr. Kerry and whether he stumbles into it or not will tell us something significant about not just what kind of candidate he'll be this year but what kind of president he'd make. The danger is the temptation to respond to Mr. Bush's jibes by going negative. The problem with this is that so few people still know who the Senator is and their first impressions of him would then be of a nobody going after a rather popular president. Mr. Kerry is not a likable man anyway, but introducing himself to the American people in such a fashion would make people really dislike him.

So, the question for the Kerry campaign is: are they realistic enough and is the candidate patient enough to start out with biography? Those of us who have been paying far too much attention are sick by now of hearing about the Senator's service in Vietnam, but perhaps 60% of the citizenry is either unaware that this Kerry guy served or else think he's the Senator Kerrey who dated Debra Winger. They need to find some imaginative ways to generate free media for awhile during which the candidate talks about himself and not politics: the late night talk show rounds, C-SPAN, Regis, the Today Show, Saturday Night Live, etc. But maybe Baseball Opening Day and a couple innings in the TV booth? Maybe an unannounced and relatively low key trip to a NASCAR race? Maybe a trip to Good Friday and Easter services? Maybe even one of those goforsaken bus trips across America? And, in the meantime, they need to be disciplined enough to spend some of the too little cash they have on hand to run those warm and fuzzy ads that make politicians seem like new and improved bathroom tissues. Hardest of all, they need to do all this with George Bush and Karl Rove just carving him up all the while and with the almost psychotically angry Democratic regulars screaming for him to return fire.

It's a tall order, but a good test. (Of course, it's only the second test--the first is retiring from the Senate.)

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 21, 2004 9:23 AM