esrosedotblog

TURTLE

I am worried about the Kerry campaign. I am willing to admit that it is still early on; useless to be upset at the bush return to a lead in two polls last week; Gallup and the ABC/WashPost. Sure. OK. And today, the Zogby tracking shows them even. OK.

But when I look at the Kerries my worst fears about his running for prez are realized. They are slow; turtle slow, out of the gate, into the first lap. They are not defining him. The bush attack machine comes out with a new charge and Kerry gets all reactive; loses momentum. He is constantly being turned on his back; turtled. Got the image?

Today the bushers are on Kerry's military records. They are turning the tables; making Kerry's military record an issue; questioning the validity of his Purple Hearts! They say, of course, that bush turned his records over (he did?) so Kerry should too. Yep. Turnabout is rarely fair play. The bushies are masters at the innuendo and smear.

So what is the Kerry reaction? He promised the records on a talk show Sunday. They took this long to get to them. They say that the time is being taken up scanning the things. Not all of them are there. They are on their backs struggling. By the time they get the goddam records out there the blood will have already been spilled and the crowd moved on. It really upsets me that this happens over and over. Lurch.

Then there is the Nader drag. Kerry seems to be ignoring the left flank entirely. Does he agree with Nader that all the troops should be pulled out in six months? No, but he is not aggressive in saying so. He is caught on both sides.

As far as the egomaniac is concerned, Tom Schaller in The Gadflyer has a great idea to neutralize Ralphie. See Dennis' Choice; wherein Schaller proposes that Mr. Kucinich resign the field, endorse Kerry, then follow Ralph around as a one-man truth squad. Kucinich appeals to a lot of the lefties who would be idealogic enough to throw the election to junior again. They are the ones, incidentally, who blame the Supremes for the 'stolen election'; conveniently forgetting that they unlocked the gate and let some of the horses out in the first place. Don't get me started on that.