History repeating

The Bush bounce out of the RNC (modest as it was) sparked something resembling a full-fledged panic in the Kerry camp. Suddenly JFK could do no right. The swift boat nostalgia fest that passed for a Democratic convention was now an ill-advised debacle; Kerry appeared girlie-mannish after the Schwarzenegger machine kicked the rhetorical sand in his face. And worst of all, it began to appear as though the Dems realized they were reliving the mistakes and miscues of the 2000 campaign. The lame, boring pussy persona is beginning to stick to Kerry, just as it stuck to Gore in 2K. Only this time, if the caricature sticks, it'll be more devastating, being that Kerry's not the incumbent and America is 'at war', or whatever you want to call it. The story arc is key, and the discrediting of the swift boat stories, right or wrong, appear to be having an impact. Once again, Bill Clinton will not stump for the candidate -- though that's not anybody's fault (except maybe McDonald's). In the 2K debacle du moment, Bob Shrum is back, and so is the curse he brings with him. In the WaPo:

Shrum's 0-7 win-loss record in presidential elections has become ensconced in the psyches of the campaigns he orchestrates. Talk of the Curse becomes rampant when Shrum's candidates sputter. And Kerry is sputtering, down nine points in a new Washington Post poll after leading Bush for much of the summer. His campaign has been called listless and unfocused, words that were also applied to Shrum's last presidential enterprise, the Gore campaign (a forbidden comparison within Kerry headquarters).

That hurts. It's a little unclear what role Shrum has on the Kerry campaign, exactly, but you can be sure the "forbidden comparison" is in the minds of at least a few staffers. Al Gore is making his best "Political Ghost from Elections Past" impression, trying to show John Kerry the mistakes he made in 2000. "Look at me, I lost, and it's because I listened too much to my advisors and the polls and too little to that little devil on my shoulder telling me to let loose." We can talk polls anytime, MacDuff. But it's tough to reinvent the wheel six weeks before E-Day. Just ask Al Gore. So what should Kerry do? Will a change in the stumping style make him look even more like a flip-flopper? Should he stay the course?