Yes, its true Kerry did just that during the Dem primaries. HOWEVER, there are a LOT of factors in W's favor:
Kerry's campaign IS imploding--for now
The economy is moving the right way
stock market is up on last day of convention--historically, when this happens, incumbent wins
All but one poll shows W's approval >50%-again, incumbents always win when approval rating is at or above 50 at this stage in the campaign
Even media pundits admit the RNC's speeches have been head and shoulders better than the DNC's
9/11
The new crop of 18-21 voters seems much more conservative than those aged 18-21 in 2000
A longtime liberal Dem I know said today at lunch that he despises Kerry, and that it's all over.
Also, the left is against the war but too ashamed to say so. They want to govern the country without honestly saying what they will do. Which is more than a little crazy, when everybody within the orbit of Mars knows what the election is about and what they would do, on the only issue that matters.
We are so used to po-mo craziness at this point that we rarely pause to notice just how deeply warped this is. Everyone knows they are peaceniks, among themselves they are proud to be peaceniks, and despise anyone who isn't. They think Bush must be ejected because he is a warmonger. So why don't they just say so, in so many words?
The problem with theory of "W wins if Kerry implodes" is that we are not seeing a 50% pro-Kerry vote. We are seeing a 50% "anyone else but W" vote. The hate and vitriol that the leftist media has sustained in an unabated campaign over the past four years has taken it's toll.
You can be a good, decent human being, a great leader, yet painted by the media to be Hitler incarnate (a la George Soros, may he burn...)
The feasible side of the implosion theory is that it turns off the anti-Bush vote. They just don't vote at all. We can definitely hope for this aspect of the implosion to occur.
Still, the leftist media will invent another GW scandal. Per a previous post:
"I'm beginning to suspect the rats will simply invent a scandal of their own against Bush. Perhaps they'll determine that Bush and Osama are actually genetic twins bred from the same batch of stem cell clones by GHWB himself. Maybe they'll link Cheney with a Haliburton scandal where the company is secretly being run by a computer hooked into Hitler's brain, snatched and stowed safely away after WWII. I dunno, but it will be something with about that level of credibility."
Well, this may be more reality than fiction as far as an executable plan for the rats (heck, they be taking notes right now.)
We can't take it for granted that the undecided voters will get as charged to vote for GW as we are. We love the stuff coming out of the convention, but they're preaching to the choir in our case. We'll have to work much harder to secure a victory in November.