If Kerry wins the nomination, he and Kennedy will instantaneously become joined at the hip by the right.
Kerry is tough but he's also very liberal, very patricianly, very high brow and he has a voting record that will be tough to defend in a national race.
He's been voting liberal Mass interests for years and there will be a price to pay for that in the gneral election. As for his bring it on foreign policy thing, he should try this on for size: "senator, what ever possessed you to cast a vote that would have allowed Saddam Hussein to annex 75 % of the world known oil reserves?"
I don't really think that something that long ago can be a killer bullet. Most of the Dems were in the same boat. Meanwhile the Democracy thing in Iraq has the potential to blow up a bit in Bush's face. The interesting thing will be to see how much Kerry's war record can cut into Bush country if he gets the nomination. As I said, the dangerous thing is that these rather talented politicians get a lot of practice in a primary campaign in jettisoning what doesn't sell. And Kerry and Edwards are both talented. Make no mistake about it. In fact, I smell a possible ticket.
Poor Dean. In some ways, I feel for him.
Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, a Democratic presidential candidate, told an audience of 150 at a campaign stop in Guttenberg, Iowa, "Here we are on a weekend before a national holiday when we celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday, and George W. Bush celebrates it by apponting Charles Pickering -- a known forceful advocate for a cross-burner in America -- to the federal court in the United States."
I don't see how Kerry can win after having said that, if Karl Rove has any sense. Replay that video soundbite, follow with a brief recounting of the actual facts of that case and Pickering's work for civil rights, a "read more about this case at (something like) www.bush2004.com", and ask if someone who's willing to slander as a racist a man who risked his life for civil rights is who you want leading our nation? (As a lawyer Pickering defended civil rights activists in Mississippi in the 60's)
Everyone talks about how Dean is changing politics with the internet, but there is a great opportunity to change it far more by a campaign creating a fact-check archive of extensive sourcing, if marketed strongly.
But Kerry is so negative that I think Edwards now has the best chance(especially if he's made a back deal with the Clintons, for when W. Clark falters.)