DEM GOP PANIC WATCH











Here's the full text.

Well gee whiz, what happened to that charicature of John Kerry the Rove Brigade has been spreading around the country for the last six months? Where was the wooden statue? The caveats and qualifiers?

Well guess what: John Kerry -- the good closer that he is -- pulled a fast one on all of them. He gave a strong, passionate, statesmanlike speech after the GOP spinners had defined the expectations down through the floor, practically to the upper mantle.

More than that, it was a relentlessly optimistic speech. Lots of "can"'s. The personal challenge to Bush to keep the campaign positive was effective. And the way he framed the potential of stem cell research (as the great potential innovation of this generation, like the Wright Brothers and the moon landing) was brilliant, and Bush deserves it, since hey, he gave Kerry a real opening on the issue.

All he had to do on national security was to pull even with Bush, and to prove himself as a viable alternative for commander in chief to a few thousand voters in Akron, Tampa and Manchester. He did that. And then some.

Oh, and yes, I was watching on CNN, so I heard this live. What annoyed me most was that Wolf and company, instead of talking about the speech, took a couple of minutes talking about the frustrated, potty-mouthed director. That's when I click over to PBS for Brooks and Shields' take.