Glenn Reynolds (for MSNBC) has a few thoughts on the inept Kerry campaign. The piece is entitled, "John Forbes Dukakis." And this piece by Susan Estrich (she had something to do with the Dukakis campiagn, didn’t she) proves Reynolds’ point. Estrich is mad as a wet hen, wants all other Demos to get as mad as she is, wants to fight "fire with fire, mud with mud, dirt with dirt." The trouble with Democrats, she maintain, is that "we aren’t mean enough." She wants a meaner campaign. Yup, that will do it. Sure. Mark Steyn looks at Kery’s midnight speech argues that Kerry just can’t take the heat: "The way things are going, Democrats seem likely to be launching the post-election catastrophic-defeat vicious-recriminations phase of the campaign round about Sept. 12."
Richard Brookhiser writes a very thoughtful piece on Kerry and focuses on the Vietnam (and after) experience question, but not the way it has ordinarily been addressed. The title reflects the point, "Kerry’s Murky Past, Our Uncertain Future." He concludes: "Mr. Kerry was sickened by his Vietnam experiences—if he really had them. He was a raging leftist—though he now runs as a warrior. He says he would see the struggle in Iraq—which he has, at different times, supported and opposed—through to the end, and we may believe him. No President comes in with a clean slate; half the job is serving the drinks your predecessor mixed.

Yet Iraq is only phase two of a war that will have many phases. If Mr. Kerry had some clear vision of its future, we could debate that. If he had some clear vision of his Vietnam past, we could debate that, too. The Terror War will have to be fought by Democrats as well as Republicans. Is John Kerry the way to begin that experiment?"