The Right Stuff

Here’s a wonderful post from &c. on John Kerry.

We are long overdue for some real analyses of Kerry’s strengths and weaknesses. So far, he is just being caricatured by the Republicans as a slimy opportunist and by the Democrats as an overqualified stiff. (Is it 2000 again?)

I am thinking that the way to interpret that is that he has the personality of Gore with the political savvy of Clinton, which isn’t a bad combo.The country might be ready for a little sober, programmatic seriousness after our little foray into rightwing fantasy. But, the Republicans aren’t going to just sit back and allow him to clean up the mess they’ve made; they are going to do everything they can to destroy him. For that you need good instincts, good timing and the ability to play rough and bounce back.

And, the Democrats definitely need somebody with some healthy self-confidence. If he wins, he’s going to need it.