Free Republic

So it's come to this: I'm John Kerry's last defender. Two pieces of conventional wisdom emerged from last week's election. (1) Republicans owe their victory to anti-gay marriage initiatives and a massive values divide; and (2) John Kerry was a lousy candidate. Both are wrong. David Brooks has fairly dispensed with the first trope, I'll tackle the second. Writing in the Progressive, Matthew Rothschild complains that Kerry "never could give a decent speech." Since November 3, other Democrats have seconded this notion, and more. In Salon, Farhad Manjoo called Kerry "a pretty poor candidate"; Alexandra Pelosi went one further, pronouncing...