JIU-JITSU: Orrin Judd notes that

JIU-JITSU: Orrin Judd notes that “Mr. Bush is doing something unique in American politics here: he’s making the Senator a target of open ridicule. The campaign’s message leap-frogged over negative and went straight to dismissive. Even more daring, it’s the President himself taking the lead. The key to this will be to stay relatively light-handed and to avoid outright contempt. If they can do that and treat Mr. Kerry as an object of fun, it will be just devastating”.

Because the press has to cover the president, no matter how much they dislike him, it also forces them to put into print at least some of Kerry’s innumerable gaffes and flip-flops, something they’ve been astonishingly reluctant to do.