Here’s a little thing. Haven’t run it by anyone, so there may be nothing to it. But consider: in a lot of polls a majority of people say they want the country to head in a “new direction.” Those are people who you would think would be ripe for voting for Kerry, but obviously not all are going for him. I wonder if Kerry’s cautious, reactive, and biography-obsessed convention–and his extremely biography-obsessed last couple of weeks–create the possibility of Bush appealing to this new direction sentiment if he is bold and policy-oriented in his convention speech. Yes, this would be counter-intuitive, but not necessarily more counter-intuitive than a Washington politician running against Washington–which happens a lot, McCain in 2000, for instance. Bush has a chance to be the forward-looking candidate in this race, a major strategic advantage.