"I'd bet John Kerry would like to be imploding the way Howard Dean is."

[pruner]

–Ron Brownstein, LA Times columnist on today's Meet the Press

[virtualobserver]

1. hell of a quote

Kerry definitely is projecting desperation.

[Fabio]

7. I'll say this.

Definately a dumb thing to say, on or off mike. BUT

I dont think the JK was saying the Dean Campaign is imploding. That would be a tough sell. I think he is talking about Dean looking much less impervious because of his shifting positions.

It's been a tough 2 weeks for Dean in terms of press. I'd imagine that's what he is responding too.

Nevertheless, not a smart thing to say.

[Capn Sunshine]

2. Its patrician frustration

He knows what he wants to say, he knows what he wants to do, ....and he can't get his people to understand what it is.

Reminds me of the gardener who knows what's good for your roses, versus you who wants flowers until the last possible moment.

[virtualobserver]

3. He shouldn't have hired Bob Shrum

Gore won the popular vote in spite of, not because of Shrum.

[Sweetpea]

4. I am beginning to agree. I have been a Kerry supporter but am

starting to lean towards Clark.

[CWebster]

5. At least Kerry has a pretty good grasp of where he falls

on the political scale and where he stands on the issues.

[Sweetpea]

6. True!!!

I am not happy with the way they are conducting the campaign. I think he is a solid candidate without charisma.

[WilliamPitt]

8. This is the second or third time I've heard Dean is 'imploding.'

Did I miss a memo? How/when/why/who says he is imploding?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

9. imploding meant: exposure of waffling and unclear stances

not the evaporation of all this blind worship.

[StopTheMorans]

10. Oh that's rich, the "Great Equivocator" is accusing others of

waffling. The Senator has no clothes.

[Sweetpea]

12. I don't think it was an accusation. It sounds like an explanation of the

use of imploding.

[StopTheMorans]

13. sure sounds like a slam at Dean

if it looks like a slam, and sounds like a slam, all I can take it as is a slam Sorry, it looks like a slam against Dean, and since all I have to go by is words on the screen, that's what I take it as.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

14. the senator has a lot more clothes on than the governor

a whole lifetime's worth in fact. Kerry's positions are much better grounded than Dean's. Hence, the implosion.

[StopTheMorans]

15. if by "grounded" you mean "always leaves an out so he doesn't

have to pin down a real position" and always has a "finger in the wind", then I agree 100%. I liked Kerry's positions up until the time that he decided to run for president, since which he has completely lost all my trust by pandering to whatever interest he thinks will gain him the votes he needs. I was in his camp wholeheartedly for months, he finally said one too many things that lost him to me. Sorry, the man is a shell of what his voting record for the last 20 years implies.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

16. The man is a "shell" of what his voting record implies

Apparently that's what a misreading of 2 votes in 1 year can do. Obliterate a lifetime of achievement.

[StopTheMorans]

18. "a misreading" of votes?

well how about "quotes" then? The "get over it" quote? The refusal to disavow his war vote now (which could have won him back many a supporter had he done it sooner)? The fact that the man has to qualify every statement that he makes? Sorry, it's not just the "war vote" or the "PATRIOT act vote" that have turned me off to Kerry. It's how he's acted in the past year and a half, the pattern I see, which leads me to believe he always has a finger in the wind and is not acting from any supreme convictions.

[Sweetpea]

20. The Patriot Act expires next year. He said he would only backed it with a

sunset clause. And there are enough threads about the war vote to read for the next 100 years.

[StopTheMorans]

21. I know this!`

look at what I said again, and read it. "It's not just the PATRIOT Act vote". In fact, that vote means nothing to me, taken in the context of when it happened and the climate in which it occurred. It's not just that vote, or the war vote. Again, it is my perception that the man has no convictions strong enough to vote for if he feels that it will cost him politically (which, strangely enough, has come to cost him politically). Just my opinion.

[Sweetpea]

17. 20 year voting record implies consistency.

[StopTheMorans]

19. and waffling and completely acting the opposite

of how his 20 year record would imply in the short period when he is seeking the highest elective office in the US would imply lack of conviction.

[salin]

11. I missed the story to which this quote refers.

Anyone willing to fill me in?

[Cocoa]

22. compared him to Red Sox fans

with "Yankees Suck" banners. Very clever, I thought.