So how has Kerry fared this week when the news was all Reagan all the time...the pundits have wondered whether or not all the pro-Reagan hoo-ha would favor Bush ("see how like Reagan he is?") or go against him ("I knew President Reagan and you are no Reagan").

Naturally, nobody is going to compare Kerry to Reagan. So what are they going to use for a basis of comparison? Here's the NYT:

Like a caged hamster, Senator Kerry is restless on the road.

Uh oh.

And from elsewhere in the article:

(he)starts his speeches with throat-clearing thank-you's that last 5, 8, even 10 or 12 minutes, and he often runs on for several paragraphs or pages after summing up with a promised, "finally."

You mean the LOW END of that is five minutes? Turn on the radio, listen to your average pop song. Okay, pretend that instead of, say, Ludacris talking about something fun or interesting, you have John Kerry recognizing the achievements of a local congressman. A song is what, 3 and 1/2 minutes? Four? And Kerry goes five? When he's keeping it short?

I remember watching candidate Bob Dole in '96 on CSPAN. He was at a state fair somewhere in the midwest, I can't remember which state exactly but my point is that if a midwestern state fair isn't Dole Country, no place is. And there was a cluster of older men, standing in a small cluster near where Dole was giving his stump speech. And the men were just chatting with one another, about their crops and stuff. Literally ALL they would have had to do was pivot slightly and stop talking and they could have taken in Dole's whole speech. But it didn't seem worth the hassle to them.

Bush's approval numbers are down, of course, but Kerry's aren't rising. The people who like Bush really, really like him. And the people who like Kerry...really hate Bush.

The anti-Clinton people assumed it was self-evident why Clinton shouldn't be re-elected. Hell during the Democratic convention, a high-level Clinton strategist was found to be telling all to a high-end D.C. prostitute. And while plenty of people disliked Clinton, not enough liked Dole.

And can I just say that I am beyond freaked out about the labor situation in Boston for the upcoming convention?

Let me explain.

Boston is in dispute with police over overtime rules and they are picketing the convention center where the convention is going to be held. The Democrats are, of course, the party of unions. So it is totally not okay to have union members of ANY sort (much less unionized cops) protesting your pep rally. Because there are going to be a bazillion journalists there, bored and looking for stories and a bunch of protesters with grievances is a story.

It gets worse, of course. Kerry is from Mass, Boston is in Mass, how difficult a concept is it to say "He can't manage a convention in his hometown; how can you argue that he should be running the country? How can you argue that Iraq would go more smoothly?"

Come on Boston! Get it together!