A couple of royal screw-ups on the campaign trail, especially right after the opposing party’s convention, aren’t going to help matters. The first, his addition of the words “the war on terror” while talking about the casaulties in Iraq, won’t complete doom Kerry, but the spin unleashed from his campaign afterwards only solidifies the image of Kerry as a flip-flopper. The second — his wife’s assertion that we really need is a Department of Wellness — could really hurt. That sound you hear? That’s thousands of centrist, undecided voters fleeing to George Bush to avoid yet another layer of bureaucracy telling us how to live our lives. This idea also provides civil libertarians with fodder to skewer Kerry, something they’ve typically avoided with a big government Republican currently in office. At this point, the Kerry campaign has to hope that the release and analysis of documents pertaining to George Bush’s National Guard, uh, service does a lot of damage to the incumbent.

Posted on 9 September 2004