Kerry Speech

My take; not bad, did what he had to do. Progressives didn't like it but if he gave a speech we liked he would do as well as McGovern did.
Matt didn't like it. Kevin thought it was OK. Dan Drezner says there is a 54% chance he will vote for Kerry. I don't know if the speech changed his mind as he didn't say what he was planning to do before. Andrew Sullivan's remarks were typical Sully BS, he liked Kerry less after the speech, far too "liberal", It must really pain Sully that the group his beloved fascists have chosen to persecute now are homosexuals. Bilmon thinks that he did himself no harm but it probably didn't help much either.Pessimist at LeftCoaster thought it was a decent speech and gives a good analysis on how the Republicans will act and react.

Update
William Saletan has a good analysis in Slate. He points out that Bush's hard turn to the right is the work of Karl Rove who thinks that Bush senior lost in 92 and Bush junior didn't get the majority in 2000 is because they both alienated the right.

In his determination to unite the right, Bush hasn't just united the left. He has lost the center. Look at last week's New York Times/CBS News poll of registered voters. "Do you think the result of the war with Iraq was worth the loss of American life and other costs of attacking Iraq or not?" Fifty-nine percent say it was not. "Which do you think is a better way to improve the national economy—cutting taxes or reducing the federal budget deficit?" Fifty-eight percent say reducing the deficit. "When it comes to regulating the environmental and safety practices of business, do you think the federal government is doing enough, should it do more, or should it do less?" Fifty-nine percent say more.

One more Bush voter on the right, balanced by one more Kerry voter on the left, plus the tilting of one more voter in the middle toward Kerry, is a net loss for the president. That's the lesson of this administration, this election, and this convention. Kerry doesn't have to write any good lines. He just has to read them.

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