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

Kerry never had a particularly great relationship with much of the Boston press corps, and the same is proving true with the national media.

All this is more important than it may seem at first blush. Most people are not going to vote for a potential president unless they're comfortable with that person coming into their living rooms for the next four years. I happen to think this was an underrated factor in the Bush-Gore race.

It's surprising that, instead of dueling with Tim Russert, Kerry's handlers don't have him chatting up Barbara Walters or Oprah or posing with his family for People. Kerry himself says that folks don't know much about him. The effort to fill in the blanks involves more than just position papers and reminding people that he served in Vietnam. There's also the warmth factor.

This, at bottom, is what the Kerry medals flap is about. Not whether he tossed his ribbons but other soldiers' medals in a protest 33 years ago, but whether he is so calculating that he did it deliberately and isn't owning up to that. Kerry's notably testy interview with Charlie Gibson on "Good Morning America," replayed for much of the day, probably didn't help him.



Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45735-2004Apr27.html