Two More Reasons Why John Kerry Is Doomed

Charles Krauthammer:

If the election were held today, John Kerry would lose by between 58 and 100 electoral votes. The reason is simple: the central vulnerability of this president - the central issue of this campaign -- is the Iraq War. And Kerry has nothing left to say. Why? Because, until now, he has said everything conceivable regarding Iraq. Having taken every possible position on the war, there is nothing he can now say that is even remotely credible.

These dizzying contradictions - so glaring, so public, so frequent - have gone beyond undermining anything Kerry can now say on Iraq. They have been transmuted into a character issue.

Dick Morris:

Kerry's basic problem is that he has no overview of how he's going to win. His consultants and staff confuse a pile of ammunition with a strategy.

Their basic idea is to hit Bush with everything and anything they can find. But throwing negatives at a sitting president is like punching a pillow. It feels good and keeps the base happy — but it doesn't help to win the election. By the time a man has served four years as president, negatives that pre-existed his tenure are largely irrelevant. People are keenly interested in the character strengths and flaws of a challenger; they want keys to how he'd do in the top job. But once they've had a chance to observe how a person actually functions as chief executive, what he did in his youth matters not at all.

Lockhart and McCurry face the same problem that Shrum encountered before them: They have a candidate who can't figure out why he's running. Kerry doesn't have a strategy because he don't have an agenda or even clear issue positions.

Bottom line: Kerry cannot save himself. He’s overrated as a debater anyway, and as Morris notes, he can’t take a stance on anything without alienating a large chunk of his base and/or swing-voters, and if he takes no stance he pretty much alienates everybody and reinforces the flip-flopper “character issue” to which Krauthammer refers.

Absent a major disaster between now and Election Day, you can stick a fork in Brah-man. And even those scenarios are slim pickings. Another major terrorist attack could help or hurt Bush, but it wouldn’t help Kerry. Natural disaster like the recent spate of hurricanes help Bush.

I think the only thing that could rescue Sphincter-Mouth would be a stock market crash.

Which would put George Soros in the on-deck circle.