Figuring out where Democrats stand in a race is easy if you look at what they do rather than what they say.
They may say things are all rosey posey but their actions may point entirely to the opposite direction. The Democrats are in a world of hurt.
Don't you think some of the HEAVY weight Democrats would have run in this election if they thought they had a remote chance of winning? Al Gore? Hillary Clinton?? Tom Daschle?? Come on these people may be as WRONG as they come but they are not all stupid. They all knew this would be incredibly difficult to win. The Electoral College edge starts off with Advantage Bush. Then you have the war on terrorism STILL going on that Americans are very much behind Bush.
Kerry is fighting the inevitable. The real power and might of the Democrat party is playing for 08. They may be trying to save Congressional seats and win some but they know Kerry (and any of the other 8 or 9 dwarfs) is a big fat loser who will fall to Bush big time. After all if Hillary, Al and Puff Daddy couldn't defeat Bush in their own minds how in the world could Herman Munster?
The one monkey in the wrench would be another terrorist attack here. GW would undoubtedly get more support even from so called undecideds if that happened...that seems a given. But if Kerry had somehow positioned himself in the center in a believable fashion for five minutes, he could say, I'd have done a better job protecting us and here's why. Then list specifics.
But he's never listed specifics about anything. Running in MA all this time, he rarely had an opponent, and if you wrote him a blistering letter complaining about whatever stance he'd taken on some bill or other, you'd get back a letter agreeing with you. Then write a letter with the opposite point of view, and you'd receive a similar letter. He operated like this for more than twenty years, flip flopping on every issue and got away with it. A con man.
Clearly the RATs have been ambivalent about this election. Beating a wartime president is difficult at best, but they thought they had the country 'divided' about Bush, the anybody but Bush crowd, you'd have thought they'd groom somebody sensible. The RAT field was off the wall, other than Gephardt. No one had a real record of achievement. Still, you'd have thought somebody in RATland would have asked Kerry why his military records were sealed, esp. since he was running on being a big hero.
They really wanted Hill, of course, and she was smart enough to know she'd have a rough time of it in the primaries and though she'd win the nomination, she'd lose to GW. But if she could jump in now, even with having to register in all fifty states, she'd give them at least a fighting chance. Kerry can't possibly think a Bush bashing episode on 60 minutes with some old RAT duffer whining about getting GW into the Texas National Guard will be boffo tv. Frances and the Russian tragedy has sucked all the air out of tv viewing this weekend. They'll have to bank on the upcoming Kitty Kelly book. So far, their anti-Bush books haven't done well.