sKerry figures that by his mentioning Cheney's daughter (instead of say, Gephardt's daughter)that some evangelical christians will not be able...in good conscience, pull the GOP lever.
I agree that Edwards and Kerry initially raised the issue for the reason you mentioned - to turn off W's culturally conservative backers.
But the plan was obviously to camoflouge what they were doing and present it as a phony compliment to the Cheneys. Now that they have been called on their stunt and it has blown up in Kerry's face, they are clearly squirming. Kerry wouldn't have issued his non-apology apology unless he felt the issue was hurting him.
Surely you can't think that having liberal icon Katie Couric accuse Kerry of a calculated political move, and having Dee Dee Myers criticize Kerry, can possibly be helping him?
Exactamundo! He could have mentioned Governor McGreavey for cryin' out loud. But no, he mentions the one person who is associated with the Repub ticket to make the point. It's disgusting. And Mrs. Edwards just made it worse with her comments about Mrs. Cheney having "issues" with her daughter's sexual preference. I don't know what made me more angry - Kerry or Mrs. Edwards. They both went over the line.