EJ Dionne's column on the Kerry critics, the many Democrats who happily bash Kerry now that the election is over, rings a bit too true. So, as part of my plea bargain, let me say that Dionne is exactly right on this:
The three debates were the only moments in the campaign in which Kerry's fate was entirely in his own hands, and he used them well. Kerry trounced Bush the first time and, I'd argue, beat him in the other two encounters.
His one false move was mentioning Mary Cheney in connection with the gay rights issue. He shouldn't have done that. But the Cheney slip became a big deal because the Bush machine is so skillful at turning little things into big things -- always with help from Rush and Fox and the rest of the party-line conservative media eager to read scripts generated by the White House. This is not just a Kerry problem but a long-term challenge for his party.
Is that ever true. The Mary Cheney fluff blunted Kerry's momentum coming off the third debate, and, in my mind, killed Kerry's chances for the presidency. I'm deadly serious on this, Bush lost the third debate much worse than he lost the first because he did it in a media friendly way. Near the beginning of the confrontation, Bush publicly and angrily denied ever saying he wasn't concerned about Osama bin-Laden. With camera rolling and flashbulbs popping, he reacted to the charge as if such a statement would be a criminal. Except he'd made that statement. There was video of him making that statement, audio of it, news stories, transcripts, criticisms.
