Kerry exasperated

The Legend of the Fast Finisher

Can Kerry come from behind a beat President Bush in November? That’s the last slim straw of hope many Democrats are clutching.

The New York Times reassures the enlightened with a front page story of how Kerry focused in the last weeks of his campaign against Bill Weld to keep his Senate seat.

. . . he and his supporters are counting on the reputation he cemented in that 1996 campaign and again in the Democratic primaries this year as a candidate who runs best from behind, a political Seabiscuit who pulls ahead after from his anxiety-producing slow starts.

I wouldn’t count on it.

First of all, Kerry came from behind in early polls to beat a Republican in liberal Massachusetts.

Second of all, '96 was a presidential election year and Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole in Massachusetts by 33 percentage points . . . one of the largest margins in any state in any presidential election in history.

Kerry’s margin of victory? Seven points

So Kerry was the incumbent Democrat in a Democratic state with a massive Democratic tide behind him and he still managed to win by only 7 points. That can’t be comforting news for professional Democrats.

The fact is, Kerry is not a “closer” as the Times would have you believe. He is a loser.