For Christ's sake, John, throw a punch already...

Were I more manly, I could use sports-based metaphors with more confidence; still, it seems that a regular boxing truism is that the jabs you lay in the early rounds often pay off later when it's time for the knockout blow.

Need I remind anyone, we ended up picking John Kerry as the Democratic nominee because we thought he could beat Bush. Period. We didn't even pretend we liked the guy (go news-google all of the articles where he won the primaries; people voted for him because they thought he could beat Bush). So since this guy won the nomination on the electability argument, it seems to me that he owes it to us Democrats by not letting the Bush campaign get in punches so easily.

Now, I understand there's a long way to go, and if we went by who was winning six months ago Dean would be the nominee, but still, even w/Richard Clarke, even with Condi's collapse, even with Bush afraid to go out in public without VP Dick "Wad" Cheney by his side, Kerry's allowing himself to get tagged on this "gas tax" issue. Bush has been running flat-out inaccurate ads in swing states and Kerry's letting him score on an issue he should be trying to avoid. WTF? Thanks to you John, I'm forced to agree with today's Washington Post editorial (who said ABB was going to be easy?). It's all the more frustrating that Kerry's not refuting and parrying this effectively because his environmental proposals are some of his most progressive policies and have the greatest potential for mainstream appeal.

It's amazing to me how Bush can deflect every potential criticism with "9/11 changed everything" when apparently the one thing 9/11 did not change is the relationship of the Bush administration with oil companies and Saudi officials. Kerry's plan of encouraging alternative energy development would create jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, secure America from dependence on countries that turn a blind eye to home-grown terrorism, and most importantly for domestic voter appeal, get American citizens closer to those cool cars like they had in Minority Report.

So there's your slogan, John, "Defeating Terrorism and Those Cool Cars Like They Had In Minority Report: Kerry '04." Now start being electable, Jesus...