No beef, no bounce

Morton Zuckerman of U.S News and World Report contends that the reason Senator Kerry did not get much bounce from the convention is that his acceptance speech lacked substance, especially on the critical issues of Iraq and the circumstances under which Kerry would go to war. Zuckerman’s critique of Kerry’s speech doesn’t make any points that I haven’t seen elsewhere, but he weaves these points together effectively. And Zuckerman is respected by many moderate Jewish voters. However, I still think that the main reason Kerry didn’t get the bounce he hoped for is that the press had already driven President Bush’s popularity down almost as far as it could go under the current economic, military, and security conditions.