Bill Safire says today, of a Kerry move to the center in the general campaign:

In the current phase, with the nomination in his pocket, he can stop emulating Dean's anger and copying Edwards's dual-Americanism. (Where will the Deaniacs and the trial lawyers go — to Nader? No; they will swallow the old Kerry — perhaps the real Kerry — to beat Bush.)

That means he will have to cut the adopted negativist rhetoric of the early phases, like last week's "heartbreaking reminder of the millions of Americans without work" whose "mainstream values are scorned by a White House that puts privilege first."

Such red meat tastes great to the already convinced, but will come across as hot air to independents who decide close general elections — a group where Kerry is weakest.

Weakest? Did he see the Super Tuesday exit polls?

Then Safire belittles Kerry on threats from abroad:

Apparently Kerry's advisers are worried about a too timely capture of Osama bin Laden, thus: "This war isn't just a manhunt." He anticipates criticism for relying too much on the U.N.: "As president, I will not wait for a green light from abroad when our safety is at stake." And he has a simplistic, Mr. Fixit solution to terror weapons: "I propose to appoint a high-level presidential envoy empowered to bring other nations together to secure and stop the spread of these weapons." That'll solve it.

Sooo... Bush invaded a nation that didn't have weapons and wasn't near developing them, in the process tipping our hand as to the threshold of our military capabilities, as well as hampering our intel credibility worldwide, the end result being North Korea's clearer posession of nukes? I'll take the "simplistic" strategy of that one any day of the week.