This from Maureen Dowd. It does give one pause.

"Mr. Kerry errs on the side of giving the answer he thinks people want to hear, even as Mr. Bush errs on the side of giving the answer he expects people to accept as true."

It does nail this campaign right on the head. I have gone from very optimistic about Kerry's chances to downright despair. Well, maybe not despair, but certainly in some level of depression.

Here's the problem as I see it. Bush is beatable. He has engaged us in a war over false pretenses, he has consistently mislead us on the cost and in the process has made the world even more dangerous. What more does it take to get a sitting president defeated? Well, the loss of jobs certainly is not a GOP positive. Having a fascist attorney general is certainly another liability. The fact that we have degraded the environmental laws back into the dark ages of the '50s. I guess we need a little blue dress with semen stains. That would be helpful, but I am very concerned that Kerry cannot deliver the message. The problem, actually, may be that he doesn't have a message.

Top 10 things Kerry needs to know:

10. Yes, John, you do own an SUV. It's called community property. And since most of America owns at least one, it's not a bad thing (though if you want to talk environment, it would have been better to have had your dippy wife drive a Chevy Malibu. And the prices are down on them right now.)
9. If you believed that what you did in protesting the Vietnam War was important in the 70s, then talk about your feelings about Vietnam now. YOU actually went to the war, and came back changed. That's a positive. George Bush went to Alabama and came back an alcoholic. Change is not always good.
8. Become a little more thick skinned. It will help you when the campaign REALLY gets hot and heavy. Yes, Dick Cheney was very much out of order in Missouri, and people saw through his heavyhandedness. You don't have to start the "i'm more patriotic than my adversaries" because I went to Vietnam. You are falling into a trap, John. People KNOW you went to Vietnam. If GOP innuendos need answering, let your menions hit the airways. Stay above the fray on this one.
7. Become an Episcopalian. Really, John, it's not so bad. Some of the churches even have all the bells and incense, and we call our religious leaders FATHER. And get this: we have FEMALE clergy. And we call them MOTHER. Seriously, John, you need to move away from a religion where the aging partiarch thinks that he can and should influence political thought in the U.S. John, our founding fathers felt like that was an important issue when it formed the constitution.
6. Get out more. Talk to people. Do town hall meetings around the country. Hear what real people are thinking and talking about, and let them pose questions to you. Everyone thinks that was a Bill Clinton playing Slick Willie. No, he developed that report with people by actually meeting and talking with them. At heart, John, you are just another Yalie snob. And you sound like a senator.
5. Pick an excellent vice president that will be a sharp contrast to Chaney. That should not be difficult. Yes, geographic balance to the ticket is important. I don't think you want a gender balance, unless its Hillary, and YOU DON'T EVEN WANT TO GO THERE. You need someone like Sen. McCain - a real contrast. Hey, go with the Arizona senator if you can. I don't think he would risk that political suicide now that you have faltered, but it never hurts to ask. You need something to shake up a very boring candidacy.
4. Get three message points and stick to them. Don't bounce all over the board with a message of the day. Here are the message points:
- The Bush Administration has failed in making America safer by taking changing objectives. Iraq oil and family revenge is not/was not/should not be an objective when trying to rid the world of Osama bin Laden and his ilk.
-Our economy is shakey. Because of GOP mismanagement, we have lost millions of jobs, inflation is on the rise and we have burdened generations of future Americans - our children and our children's children - with a debt totally out of control.
- The environment suffers every day that the GOP is in charge. You can ask eskimos in Alaska or world environmental scientists, and they will tell you the obvious. We are in a period of warming that will have serious affects on our agriculture and our lives over the next few decades. You do not have to wait for a definitive paper on it. It exists. And everyone knows it, though they don't know what it means for them personally. And think of all the arsenic anecdotes you can throw it.
War, economy, environment. Those are the three.
3. Avoid any late minute makeovers like Gore allowed. It didn't make him a better campaigner, and it sounded goofy from the start. It just reinforced what everyone thought about him. You are a good speaker when you are talking to masses of people. You are better when you are NOT behind the podium.
2. Accept the fact that you are smarter than Bush. God knows, so many people are. But don't try to outsmart him. Don't try to be smarter than you are. Let Bush be Bush and it will take care of itself.
1. The goal is to beat Bush. A lot of people are depending on you, but don't let it go to your head. You are not some caped crusader. You are John Kerry of Massachusetts. Leave your ego at home. (see No. 6 - talk to the people).

One other bit of advice. I think it has become evident - and one of the latest books on the Family Bush seems to confirm it - George W. Bush really believes that God has put him in the White House to battle the unbelievers. Bush believes there is a religious reason for battling the godless moslem while embracing our Jewish brothers. Religious evangelicals truly believe that Armageddon is coming and that Christians and Jews will unite to fight satan. The man is a little nuts. Let him run with that, and perhaps he will voice it more in the campaign. You never know. We can only pray.