The Massachusetts senator has altered course on key issues, most notably Iraq, and he has yet to convince people that changing your mind is better than making consistently bad decisions, as he insists the president has done.

The tension has been noticeable in the Kerry camp, where speeches are being rewritten hours before delivery, and new faces have begun to appear on the team.

Mr Kerry has brought on two distinct groups of reinforcements: political street-fighters from his Boston past, John Sasso and Michael Whouley; and famous faces from the Clinton White House, such as the former presidential spokesmen Joe Lockhart and Mike McCurry, and a prominent pollster, Stanley Greenberg.

Mr Lockhart has become the campaign's new front man on television, but on the road, Mr Sasso is the battlefield tactician, constantly at the senator's shoulder.

The last time Mr Sasso was in the national spotlight was in 1988. He was forced to resign from Michael Dukakis's campaign when it was found he had leaked tapes to the press that showed that one of the Massachusetts governor's opponents in the Democratic primary, Joe Biden, had plagiarised Neil Kinnock's words.

There are very few people that I've talked to who say they are voting for him, say that they are doing it because they like what he says. They say its because they hate Bush. And hate can be very powerful, as we have witnessed.Cleo

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article appears in the September 27, 2004, issue of National Review.

John Kerry is blessed with a reputation as a "great finisher." The candidate himself bragged to Newsweek, "I'm known as a good closer." Charles P. Pierce wrote in Esquire that Kerry has "won every race that he was supposed to lose." "Great closer" was the Democrats' buzz-phrase even before Bush surged ahead in the post-convention polls; Howard Dean is now touting the belief to the New York Times as a reason for liberal optimism this fall. "It seems to be the rhythm in all of his races," says Mary Anne Marsh, who helped guide Kerry's 1982 race for lieutenant governor. "None of them have been easy. He starts out the prohibitive favorite, then fades or stumbles, and has what I call a political 'near-death experience,' and comes up swinging. Then he gets focused and ferocious and terrific."

But Kerry's history doesn't quite match this blueprint. A careful review of his four competitive races suggests that Kerry has earned a "great closer" reputation while never seriously trailing in any campaign, competing against opponents who self-destructed at opportune moments, and running in a state whose political culture could be described as a Democratic incumbent-protection program.

Kerry's first elected political office was lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. He had stumbled in two congressional races in the early 1970s, but his national prominence during the Vietnam protests and more recent work as a local television commentator made him the only candidate for lieutenant governor in 1982 who was known statewide. He qualified for the September ballot by winning 15 percent of the delegate votes at the party convention, and then had his extra delegates help another candidate, former state legislator Lois Pines, get on the ballot. This maneuver guaranteed that the women's vote would split between two like-minded activists, Pines and former state environmental secretary Evelyn Murphy. Kerry poured more than $100,000 of his own money into the campaign. Three weeks before the primary, a Boston Globe poll still showed Kerry as the only candidate with any name recognition; Kerry managed to win the Democratic nomination with 29 percent of the vote. He went on to easy victory in the general election....

John L-But Kerry's history doesn't quite match this blueprint. A careful review of his four competitive races suggests that Kerry has earned a "great closer" reputation while never seriously trailing in any campaign, competing against opponents who self-destructed at opportune moments, and running in a state whose political culture could be described as a Democratic incumbent-protection program.

Another thing is that Kerry is not the 'tap dancer' that Clinton was and still is. Clinton could say anything, smile, and make you forget that you were overlooking your 'lying eyes'. Clinton is only one of those 'one in a million' sort of fellow.

Another one like him will not come around for a long, long time!

One thing is for sure, kerry has never been in a National race and is finding out that the rules are very different when running for President when compared to the Senate.

I think Kerry will pull another primary out of his a*s and win this thing....because of the smear campaign of deceptive media as they take on Bush for things they don't understand, like terror threats being real and because Kerry is careful not to use vocabulary his supporters can't understand! He uses, Bush is wrong for this country, He's done nothing for the people, Bush didn't do anything he said he would, etc. A recent poll indicates of Republican voters 78% plan to vote FOR Bush because they like him and like 11% plan to vote for Bush because they hate Kerry...of Democrat voters only 35% plan to vote for Kerry because they like him and 61% plan to vote for him because they hate Bush. All Rather has to do now is say the hurricanes are movies meant to give Bush the opportunity to look like he cares about people and it's a home run for Kerry.