Will bounce help Kerry seal the deal? [View All]

IT TURNS out that there are four ways of dealing with the bounce John Kerry has enjoyed from his first two victories in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination: Ride it, attack it, ignore it, or offer an alternative. Each presents its own opportunities and risks, but as 10 states prepare to vote this week (seven today), every political calculation and all the elements of voter decision-making start with the Kerry surge and the fact that it has transformed the campaign everywhere in the country.

So high was the bounce that the major question to be answered this week is whether any other presidential campaign will remain standing credibly after it ends.

In states that Kerry had to virtually abandon in order to gamble everything that a victory in Iowa would propel him forward, the transformation has been astonishing.

From single-digits in polling in New Mexico, he has gone above 30 points in two weeks; here, he and Howard Dean have basically changed places. It is not entirely pure momentum; the same voters I met in Iowa and New Hampshire are to be found nationally -- people who think Kerry is the strongest challenger to President Bush.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/02/03/will_bounce_help_kerry_seal_the_deal/