Kerry is collapsing: Can he save his campaign?

[Hawkeye-X]

SEN. JOHN KERRY's campaign is falling apart at the seams. His poll numbers continue to look bleak, and undecided Democrats both in early primary states and nationwide are not responding to his overtures.
Among the bad news that piled up last week:


A National Journal poll of Democratic Party insiders ranked Kerry third in the race for the Democratic nomination, behind Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt. Of the 30 top Democrats polled, none gave Kerry a first-place vote.

A CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll released on Tuesday found that Kerry finished fifth among Democrats nationwide, with just 10 percent saying they would vote for him.

A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday also had Kerry finishing fifth among Democrats nationwide, with only 10 percent saying they would vote for him.

A Fox News poll released on Friday found that Kerry finished no higher than fourth among the Democratic candidates when rated on "leadership," "intelligence," and "decisiveness."

In the past two months, Dean has topped Kerry in every poll conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. In South Carolina, where Kerry made his official campaign announcement, he finished with only 5 percent of the vote in the latest poll, coming in below Al Sharpton and tied with Carol Moseley-Braun among definite Democratic voters.

While Kerry's campaign isn't dead yet, morticians are standing by.


More...

I am a Dean supporter, and this was caught off the comments section of Dean's blog. Take as you wish. It is an editorial after all...

Hawkeye-X

[Scott Lee]

1. And rightly so

The Democratic Party needs a purge, a cleansweep, a revolution if you will. It needs to dump the old party statism represented by Kerry, Lieberman and Gephardt, if it is to survive at all.

I don't usually praise campaign slogans, but I have to say Dean has a masterful one - he believes he "represent(s) the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party".

Judging from his donations and poll numbers, more and more people agree with him.

[wryter2000]

2. I'm a Deanie, but

That phrase was coined by Paul Wellstone.

[izzie]

4. Good for Paul but no copywrite on words if you recall.

Why is Kerry falling? He seems like a good man even if I like Dean so far the best, but I am still waiting.Kerry would be a good Prez.

[Scott Lee]

7. Ooops, my bad

That phrase was coined by Paul Wellstone.

Well to echo Johnny Carson "I did not know that."

Thanks for the correction!

[Bucky]

8. Cute slogan... too bad he lifted it off a dead man

That's probably not fair. Hell, I know it's not fair. But when you consider how Dean disagrees with Wellstone on so many issues--gun control, medicare & medicaid, import and industrial policy, welfare, campaign finance reform--the use of Wellstone's slogan is at the least audacious. I'd call it opportunistic.

[SaveElmer]

3. Which explains his Pathetic attacks on Dean

Especially this Confederate flag thing. What a joke!!!

[Demobrat]

5. Yep. His whole product positioning was

vote for me because I'm a real soldier and Bush isn't. Then Clark came along with more medals and blew him out of the water. Now all he's got are pathetic attempts at knocking down the frontrunner.

[JackSwift]

6. It's too soon for a legit candidate to pull out

And Kerry contributes to the race.

[belle]

9. Yeh. I don't want anyone to drop out just yet...

(except Lieberman, that putz)

although I do wish they'd stop with the petty inter-party bashing and focus the competition on who's got the best way to dump Dubya. And ultimately, I'm pro-Dean and glad he's leading! But in the interim, I like that * is getting it from several sides at once.

It confuses them, the Repubs, I'm sure of it. They do best with a single, monolithic enemy (whether real or, better, one they've made up): attack the enemy is their only game. The longer it is until they know which enemy to focus on, AFAIC, the better.