I disagree with you about it not being a rejection of leftist politics. At this convention, Kerry did his best to sound like a Democratic Ronald Reagan. The word "liberal" or "progressive" never once crossed a single speaker's lips. This is a party that could not tell people who it was and what it believed in. If this is a liberal country, Kerry should have said, "I am a liberal and proud of it," and then defended his Senate record. He did neither. In effect, the Democrats by running as pretend Republicans, have accepted the Right's indictment of them as being out of touch with mainstream America. And being downright phony adds to the sense they can't for whatever reason, offer the American people a real alternative.
"No one got a sense this was a party looking ahead to the future or that it was even in the 21st Century at all...
The Democrats are stuck in the 60s reliving Vietnam while the rest us are concerned with 9/11 and Islamofascist terrorism in the new millenium. No wonder Kerry didn't get a bounce."
Bears repeating. This is one of the things that is so bad about Kerry. He constantly evokes the Sixties, bringing to mind the unhappy time when LBJ was President. It's not a fortuitous association for this candidate.
Kerry acts as if he's starring in "That Sixties Show".