Hell, this is typical liberal copying of past campaigns--it's the Nixon-secret-plan strategy! Only in this case, the war isn't as unpopular, and the candidate he's running against isn't Hubert Humphrey.
If they keep this crap up they might just lose their Senate minority veto, too.
Mostly I've seen poorly executed wholesale theft of Reagan's campaigns from the Democrats this election season. It is quite transparent, as the good ol' days of Reagan's vision and optimism and how he turned America around got so much play following his death. Suddenly, the dour, long in the face Kerry has transformed himself into a cheap immitation of Reagan, going around claiming to be "the optimist" and declaring its time to "believe in America again".
Who is it, exactly, that doesn't believe in America?
Could it be Kerry's liberal base that don't believe in America as a matter of ideology?
Of course Kerry's supposed message of "optimism" of how "America can do better" lacks both heart and soul, and Kerry instead only comes across haughty, as though he is lecturing people about why he is better than them.
But even if Kerry's performance wasn't dismal, this still isn't 1980, there is no national malaise (despite what Kerry is desperately tring to sell) and John Kerry is sure as hell no Ronald Reagan.
Kerry's message of "America can do better" is nothing but a hollow slogan at best, and is really just about saying how much he thinks America sucks than about any bright future he envisions.