MIKE BARNICLE ON POLITICAL RHETORIC, from Hardball:

[T]he difference between listening to John Kerry and listening to George Bush is the difference between reading Elmore Leonard and James Joyce. The language of his campaign is so lame that he can‘t connect. He has not yet connected with the American voter. You listen to the president of the United States, whether you agree or disagree with Iraq. . . . his language is direct.

The other problem for the Kerry campaign is that Kerry probably thinks it’s a good thing when you’re compared to James Joyce. . . .

But his waffling has got both pro-war Democrats (“Speaking as an embarrassed and fed-up Democrat, I have to say to the national leaders of my own party: What were you thinking when you nominated this man! “) and anti-war Democrats (“Kerry is imploding because he threw away his most important advantage. He had an energized, passionate base, and he took them for granted. Now he’s losing them . . . Some of them will vote for Nader, but unless Kerry throws them some red meat during the debates, most of them will stay home.”) disgusted with him.

If you try to please everyone, you usually wind up pleasing no one.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Micahel Duff, who’s at the anti-war Democrat link above, emails that he’s not a Democrat. From his email and his post, I had thought that he was. Nonetheless, I think he’s right that anti-war democrats are losing interest in Kerry.