Catherine,
I’m going to have to start getting up earlier in order to keep up. In re 6:55, I’ve followed politics the way some kids follow their favorite baseball teams for over thirty years. I have no training in political science and have only worked as an unpaid volonteer on a couple of campaigns. The first one was in ’66 for a fellow named Bob Finch for Lt. Gov. in California. So what I write here has only the weight of my observational experience behind it.
The reason that I believe that Kerry has taken the reins is that the midnight speech was one of the dumbest political moves I’ve ever seen. That coupled with the ineptitude shown in responding to the Swiftvets tells me that Kerry is at minimum unable to choose correctly between differing advice given by contentious advisors. I have no idea whether Kerry meets enough of the criteria established by the DSM-IV for NPD but he certainly makes choices in a manner that supports that conclusion. If he is a true narcissist then we can expect ever increasing fury in his attempts at rebuttal. His “you can’t challenge me on this” response is going to get worse.
Wrt Bush and the evangelicals, reaction by evangelicals to a revelation of misconduct is determined by the severity and frequency of the misconduct and the contrition shown by the penitent. If what is suggested did in fact occur then Bush better get it out now and explain it as an isolated incidence of weakness. It won’t have a tremendous impact unless it was an affair of some duration. If it was of some duration he’ll lose a significant portion of the evangelical support. The evangelical extention of grace tends to cover singular rather than serial events (although there is no theological basis for the limitation. He can win without them, he just can’t beat Reagan’s ’84 margin without them.
My reference to initiation of a minority support drive is indeed another indicator that Kerry is in control. Minority support has a monetary cost to it that I do not believe is covered in Kerry’s campaign budget. Brazile did a masterful job for Gore but she isn’t even giving a half effort for Kerry. As I said before, the minority voter sees nothing for himself in voting for Kerry. Kerry has absolutely zero minority presence.
Gotta run.
