Try not to look too far ahead, but keep your eyes on the future.

- This is not an opinion just an observation-
Senator Kerry has never been one to energize people. He seemed to win the nomination not by doing anything other than getting out of Governor Dean's way when he imploded (and exploded). While every candidate (winners and losers) has had some kind of message to deliver, Senator Kerry doesn't. Quick think of his stance. The The candidates in 2000's messages were: GWB - To restore honesty and integrity to the White House. Gore - The people not the powerful. What is Kerry running with? Only one I can think of is "I'm not George Bush". Usually negative messages don't play well. And anyways golly Lou Pinella or David Spade aren't GWB either.

So it seems that the mainstream and liberal press which is hopeful to finish off the President has become disappointed in Senator Kerry, his staff and his non-message. Already, no matter how hard they wish, they cannot turn this "frog" into a "prince". They now have started to show they are less than enthusiastic about their nominee.

from the Washington Post:
"You don't have to fall in love," Hillary Rodham Clinton reportedly reproved a top Democratic fundraiser who was recently moaning about Kerry's lackluster performance as a candidate. "You just have to fall in line."

- Also -

There was a surreal moment at a serious Manhattan dinner party Tuesday night when 12 power players who had all been talking at once about the mess in Iraq suddenly fell silent to listen to the waiter. He dove in shortly after he had served the coconut cake with lemon dessert -- perhaps to give moral support to the only Republican present, who was beginning to flag. Or perhaps he just thought it might be helpful for the guests to hear from one of the Ordinary Americans whose unhappiness with the status quo they are in the habit of earnestly invoking.

"I'm from the suburbs," he announced, "and I'm voting for Bush."

All eyes turned to him. "It might seem odd that a savvy New Yorker like me is voting for a guy in a cowboy hat," he went on, as he recklessly doled out ice cream to a network anchor, "but what we want is stability. This Kerry guy -- he's all over the place."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51604-2004Apr28.html

From the Village Voice:
Headline: John Kerry Must Go
Note to Democrats: it's not too late to draft someone—anyone—else

With the air gushing out of John Kerry's balloon, it may be only a matter of time until political insiders in Washington face the dread reality that the junior senator from Massachusetts doesn't have what it takes to win and has got to go. As arrogant and out of it as the Democratic political establishment is, even these pols know the party's got to have someone to run against George Bush. They can't exactly expect the president to self-destruct into thin air.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0417/mondo1.php

LA Weekly:
John Kerry has a problem. And it’s not of his making. With the war in Iraq becoming increasingly difficult, he confronts again and again a natural question: What will you do differently? The issue is not what he would have done differently than George W. Bush. Despite his vote to grant Bush the authority to invade Iraq, Kerry certainly would not have followed the damn-the-inspections, full-invasion-ahead course Bush adopted. And Kerry is quick on the campaign trail to blast Bush for a screw-the-allies unilateralism that has left the United States holding a rather big and costly bag in Iraq. But it is not enough for Kerry to say he would have prevented the United States from getting into this jam. He still will continuously be pressed on what he will do in Iraq as president.

Not only does he not have a good answer; there is no good answer.

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/22/news-corn.php

Boston Globe:
IF JOHN KERRY hadn't already clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, his medals meltdown on "Good Morning America" this week would have sunk his campaign. Much as Howard Dean's crazed "I Have A Scream" speech jolted voters into wondering whether someone so hotheaded should be allowed anywhere near the nuclear trigger, Kerry's abusive tirade on ABC gave millions of viewers a foretaste of how far presidential discourse will sink if Kerry becomes president.

Not one voter in 100 would vote against Kerry for trashing his Vietnam War medals when he was 27 years old. What he did with his combat decorations in 1971 has no bearing on whether he is fit to be president today. That long-ago episode is an issue today only because Kerry's versions of it have changed so many times and because it so perfectly typifies his lifelong habit of saying one thing today and something else tomorrow -- and then denying having done so.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/04/29/the_kerry_medals_mystery/

Buzzflash:
And, finally, I have a question: Mr. Kerry, If you can’t or won’t prosecute Bush and his administration in terms of their motives and credibility, their policies and the connections leading to these policies, their actions and inactions in terms of our security and the pursuit of a stable world, then what kind of an election are we facing? I, for one, need to see the steady fire again, everyday, on every issue, from now until November.

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/04/con04179.html

UTNE
Instead of appealing to young, on-campus voters by hyping the need to make college more affordable or snatching democracy from the corporations and giving it back to the people, John Kerry is delivering his same, generic speech on his Campus Tour 2004 -- promoting tax-code reform, outsourcing, Social Security, and Medicare, writes The Village Voice's Anya Kamenetz. "No candidate would go to a senior center and give a lecture about Head Start. Why, then, bring college students to a speech at the 'Harvard of the poor,' only to address the concerns of the middle-aged middle class?" asks Kamenetz, who interviewed several first-time voters looking for a reason, any reason, to vote for Kerry in November.

http://www.utne.com/webwatch/2004_146/news/11207-1.html