Tom Raum of AP writes a piece that will cause the Kerry campaign folks to lose much sleep. The piece is relatively carefully written, but is still too revealing and Kerry’s decline is now an entirely public matter. The conversation, the news, the matter of politics from now on until the election is that the Kerry campaign is crippled, or hobbling, or finished. Raum states this: Bush has put some states that everyone for many months--in hushed quasi-religious tones--had been saying were part of the battleground states out of play. Max, there are only ten battleground states left to fight over, and some of those are already out of play, in my opinion. They include: Ohio, Florida, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Louisiana, North Carolina, Washington, Maine, New Hampshire. Bush is now focusing on Michigan, Pennsylavnia, Minnesota, New Mexico. Kerry is now worried about the so-called second tier of battleground states, and within two weeks he will be worried about California and Oregon, and such, imho. Terrible campaign, terrible candidate. TV ads like this aren’t going to help Kerry. Amazing.