GENIUS/LUNATIC/GENIUS/LUNATIC:

The Kerry Crackup: The Democratic candidate does a good Al Gore impression. (Stephen F. Hayes, 09/13/2004, Weekly Standard)

It's a shame the networks didn't include Kerry's remarks in their GOP convention coverage. In just 30 minutes, Kerry provided a revealing look at himself, a reminder of his meandering views, several clues about the state of his campaign, and a hint of what the next two months will look like.

Kerry sought to portray himself as an aggrieved but righteous politician, the innocent target of vicious Republican attacks. This is a substantial rewriting of history. Kerry and his campaign staff have been every bit as biting in their criticism--having, prior to this, called Vice President Cheney unfit for office and accused President Bush of using family connections to avoid serving in Vietnam. But the gamble for Kerry is not that reporters will point out the many harsh attacks his campaign has leveled at the Bush administration. The media wouldn't be so inconsiderate. The risk for Kerry is that in a campaign devoted largely to convincing voters of his strength, assuming the mantle of victim does little to inspire confidence.

"For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as commander in chief," Kerry complained.

He later added:

"Worst of all, George Bush misled America when he took us to war in Iraq."

That last line may have been the most significant one in the speech because it indicates that Kerry has veered sharply back to the Howard Dean/Al Gore/Michael Moore wing of the Democratic party.

Unfortunately the Kerry campaign has been so badly run and the candidate himself is so undisciplined that it's impossible to separate wise tactical maneuvers from momentary psychoses. If the Senator is veering Left he may be able to stem Democrats' congressional losses and get back much of the 4% he's losing to the anti-war candidate, Ralph Nader. The possibility also exists though that by the end of Labor Day weekend he'll be denying again that he was tricked into supporting the war, in which case this appearance is yet another blunder.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 4, 2004 7:24 PM