Kerry Spot    [ jim geraghty reporting ]
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The Ten Most Interesting items in the Hotline today:

1. Fox News Channel's Dick Morris: "I think that what's happened is that Bush has set up a trap for Kerry, which is, he has so emphasized Kerry's flip-flopping, so-called weakness, vacillation, all that stuff, that Kerry has to take strong positions in the debate. And either way he takes a strong position on Iraq, he loses" ("Hannity & Colmes," 9/27).

2. CNN's T. Carlson: "If you listen to the Democrats, George W. Bush is not only a moron who can barely tie his own shoes, but he's the most brilliant debater in the history of western civilization" ("Paula Zahn Now," 9/27).

3. FNC's Angle: "The president is bracing for attacks from Senator Kerry and will be ready. And one aide said the president might raise the matter of Senator Kerry's shifting positions by asking as they did on a famous quiz show, 'Is that your final answer'" ("Special Report," 9/27).

Kerry Spot observation: Please don’t quote Regis. That’s so three-years-ago.

4. NBC's Russert: "It's a rare opportunity for John Kerry to reintroduce himself to the American public.”

Kerry Spot observation: Exactly how many times does Kerry need to “reintroduce himself to the American public”? This is like playing with the kid down the street who kept yelling “do-over” when he messed up. I mean, with a month and change until Election Day, when can we start concluding that the American public has been introduced and reintroduced and reintroduced to Kerry, and has decided it just plain doesn’t like him?

5. James Rappaport, who challenged Kerry in MA SEN: "He didn't attack me for my positions as anti-tax and pro-growth and pro-growth. He attacked me primarily personally." More Rappaport: "At one point he called me a chicken hawk because I was strong on defense but hadn't served in Vietnam. He forgot that I was sixteen when the war ended." ("Nightline," ABC, 9/27).

6. U.S. News' Simon: "The media is really making too much of these things as being the end-all and be-all of this election. Debates usually are not very dramatic. They usually don't produce clear winners and losers. And they often, very often, do not determine the outcome of the election" ("Capital Report," CNBC, 9/27).

7. It's "hard to believe" that the John Kerry of "U.S. Senate stiff-speak is out there on the campaign trail tossing off homespun phrases, and even a joke or two." Kerry is "not only ... dropping the occasional laugh-line in to his stump speech" but his crowds are "chuckling," and this "heartens campaign aides who think his message is extraordinary but worry that the delivery is often ordinary." He "isn't just using the lingo of the younger generation. He's thrown in a couple of old-fashioned folksy phrases, too." He was "cracking up his partisan crowd" in WI, telling voters "they shouldn't be wary of changing horses midstream when the horse is drowning." Kerry: "May I also suggest that we need a taller horse? You can get through deeper waters that way" (Pickler, AP/Green Bay News-Chronicle, 9/28).

Kerry Spot observation: Hooboy! Hilarity!

8. FNC's Hume: "You may have noticed, folks, in that video that we showed you that John Kerry seemed red in the face. That is not the result of some technical problem or anybody changing the pictures. He has apparently picked up some color over the weekend somehow. And his staff indicates that there's no effort to color him for the debate or anything like that. He just apparently picked up some sun. So, let's get that out of the way" ("Special Report," 9/27).

Kerry Spot observation: Team Kerry had better be putting a lot of normal-looking makeup on him if the “orange glow” is still there on Thursday night. Between the laryngitis and the orange-looking tan, do you get the feeling Kerry was just born unlucky?

9. CNN's Crowley, on the Kerry camp's reaction to the latest poll: "They have been watching those internals ... which show George Bush with that huge lead on leadership, which show that most people think George Bush has a plan for Iraq, that John Kerry does not. That has to be troublesome. ... Last week, they thought they had a great week, which they began with a speech on Iraq on Monday, they ended with a speech on terrorism on Friday. Aides were talking it up as momentum. This doesn't show it just yet" ("Paula Zahn Now," 9/27).

10. Teresa Heinz Kerry campaigned in the Twin Cities 9/27 on behalf of her husband, "attending a private fundraiser and visiting an urban youth agriculture program." THK's first stop "was at a $250-per-person fundraiser at the Minneapolis Club." The event raised money for the DNC. After that event, "she visited the West Side Youth Farm in St. Paul." The farm "is one of three farms in Minneapolis and St. Paul run by the Youth Farm and Market Project, which teaches agriculture skills to about 150 kids."

THK "picked vegetables off the vine and nibbled on them, and sampled salsa that the students made from their produce."

As she was leaving, THK told students: "Be happy. Be good." To adults, "she advised in a light-hearted tone": "Vote often and vote well" (Von Sternberg, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 9/28).

Kerry Spot observation: Decades from now, graduate students in political science will still be writing theses entitled, “The Fine Line Between Outspoken and Out of Office: Teresa Heinz Kerry and the presidential race of 2004.”

[Posted 09/28 02:18 PM]