Kerry is playing his cards right.

At this point he seems to be laying low and conserving his resources, content with keeping his campaign active mainly through press statements (which I think have been very strong btw). This seems like the right strategy to follow. He doesn't need to do anything right now. The Bushies are doing a plenty good enough job digging their own grave. Considering Kerry has half the finances (I hate the term 'war chest') of the incumbent he's smart to save it until the fight really heats up in late summer-early fall. Let Bush keep putting his foot in his mouth and screw up everything he touches. They're doing half Kerry's campaigning work for him, and the negative ads seem to have had little effect. Not that Kerry hasn't had a rebuttal for almost all of them anyway. And he's been wise to steer clear of that negative TV campaigning.

Just my observations.

Bush has been having an absolutely awful couple of weeks, and all without any help from Kerry.

The news day-in and day-out is bad for Bush. People see that and it has an impact. If the lead story was "Kerry attacks Bush", they'd think all the bad news they saw was just partisan politics. This way, Bush gets all the blame without Kerry having to do a thing.

How can Bush & Kerry remain basically tied in most polls, after the Bush disasters we have seen?

It looks like no matter how much Bush screws up, Kerry does not pull away.

and the masses don't care about this election yet. That's one obvious reason why the polls are wacky. No worries yet (except for Diebold).

Don't trust corporate polls. Kerry is at least 10 points ahead of whatever CNN, CBS, Zogby, Gallup say he's at.

Plus the fact that polls don't matter before Labor Day anyway.

In any event, incumbents are always ahead this early. Bush The First was ahead of Clinton back in April 1992, wasn't he? Which proves that Bush the Lesser is in deep sh*t.

so while people may have questions about bush, those who are moderates or conservative might still have questions about kerry. i'm hoping he does something to introduce himself to a larger audience. the dnc unity dinner video of kerry was very good and it would be good if they could shorten it to make it about a minute long and air it around the country. he could emphasize his military service and work as a prosecutor along with his work on the environment and civil rights.

and of course his vp pick should be someone who can help get voters outside of kerry's base meaning those who are moderate to conservative leaning.

also, this is why kerry mentions his work with mccain a lot. not because mccain will be vp or anything like that, but to attract voters outside his base who are worried he might be too liberal. he will never get the right wing votes, but he can try to get the moderate and reasonable conservatives that mccain is popular with.

the stumbling, bumbling idiot *.

... and they will hang themselves. It is best to not fight negative with negative until everyone knows who started it, LOL.

I think dumbya and the rnc look like idiots with the stuff they try to use against Kerry.

NPR was reporting today on the pukes' efforts to "regulate" charity groups so they can gain yet another advantage. Never mind that it will have repercussions for ALL charity groups and FOREVER. The proponent of "regulation" was totally focused on the impact it would have on gwb's (re)election challenge. Very short term view. Very typical RW shine-ola.

Idling a little while your opponent becomes more and more desperate is excellent positioning. As long as you have a healthy security detail.

What you say, makes alot of sense. Right now, he has to stay in the news (like you say), raise some money, and go on Letterman. :)

he doesn't really have a choice here.he raises a lot of money, but it's not near the amount bush has raised. bush can afford to run ads in just about every state every few minutes. kerry can't afford it. based on the amount of money he has he has to limit ads to fewer states and fewer times the ads run there. so when you look at polls, keep in mind how much bush spend to go after kerry and yet bush is still either some points behind or tied.

Just appearing articulate, knowledgeable and intelligent will be a good contrast to the Chimp.