Kerry Is Campaigning Hard

John Kerry is campaigning hard and, as Mickey predicted, has the poll numbers to prove it.

Still time for the long, slow, fact-finding trip around the world.

MORE: Let's bring Joe Klein to the dance, perhaps to the tune of "Black is Black (I Want Bill Clinton Back)":

...Kerry's may be the most sclerotic presidential campaign since Bob Dole's.

The stodginess is compounded by the Senator's public performances. In an effort to seem positive, he has removed the "Bring It On" red meat from his stump speech and replaced it with Spam. It is not uncommon to see audiences leaving his fund-raising events in droves while he is still speaking. Often he'll talk about the need for a new style of campaigning, a "conversation" with the American people, and then he'll proceed to relaunder a list of Democratic nostrums ("Health care is a right, not a privilege") that were clichés when Dukakis slogged the trail. There is nothing conversational, or comforting, about his candidacy.

We'll pencil him in as "leaning to Kerry". And we endorse his conclusion:

My guess is that there are small but significant numbers of Bush supporters who are ready to jump ship—fiscal conservatives, military families, diplomatic traditionalists angry about the war. A vote for Kerry will not be easy for them; it will have to be earned. The Senator will have to prove that he is up to the presidency. That will require a largeness of spirit, a well-tempered candor and a political courage that he has not yet demonstrated.

Or Kerry could say "Zoop", and those lying, crooked Republicans would be gone.

MORE: Brutal news for Kerry from the ABC/WaPo poll:

More broadly — among all Americans, not just among those who pick one of these issues as most important to them — Bush has battled back to parity or better. As noted, in early March, riding high off his primary victories, Kerry led in public trust to handle eight issues out of 11. Today Kerry leads only in trust to handle health care, and by just six points — compared with a 20-point advantage last month.

...Equally important as issue preferences are personal attributes, and here, too, Kerry fares less well. Forty-nine percent rate him as "honest and trustworthy," down from 59 percent last month. (Bush does better, 55 percent and stable.) Kerry's rating as a strong leader is down nine points to 52 percent; as someone who understands people's problems, down seven points to 51 percent.

Bush does less well on empathy — just 41 percent think he understands their problems — but that's unchanged. He does better on being a strong leader — 64 percent, essentially unchanged, and 12 points better than Kerry.

In three new measures, just 45 percent say Bush admits his mistakes — but it's the same for Kerry. Just 46 percent say Bush is "always truthful in explaining his policies" — but it's just 38 percent for Kerry (with more undecided). And 79 percent say Bush "takes a position and sticks with it," while just 41 percent say that describes Kerry.

And, as the Post explains, the last month, with the 9/11 hearings and the violence in Iraq, has not been a good one for the President.

UPDATE: I have some thoughts at "Kerry and the Polls", above.

Comments

[sym]

hmmm:
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2004/03/if_history_is_a.html

[TM]

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds - I have some thoughts a few posts up, cleverly titled "Kerry and the Polls".

[bushgirlsgonewild]

It's been a BAD 3 YEARS for us all, especially the 11 a week dead - a total of 564 - since the Chicken Hawk landed on the Lincoln and proclaimed "Mission Accomplished."