bad timing

There’s a lot of embarrassed muttering about a few news cycles’ worth of negativity, but Austin Bay has a different take on John Kerry:

In the spare space of 24 hours Kerry has resurrected the Vietnam Syndrome –at least his and the left wing of the Democratic Party’s Vietnam (loser’s) Syndrome. This is stupid but particularly stupid in the last week of a national election. Doubly stupid in the midst of a long, grinding war. Kerry is trapped, in an odd sort of amber. He’s stuck on stupid and stuck in the past simultaneously. John Kerry, the stegosaurus of American politics. (Okay, I’m unfair to stegosaurs, they had backbones and spikes on their tails– but the drawing at the link is cute.)

The Feiler Faster theory (hat tip to the inimitable Mickey Kaus) says that voters only start to pay attention toward the end of a campaign. Kerry is certainly an unpleasant reminder of Democrats at their most insular and self-righteous.
Is it the end of the campaign yet? Probably not.