After a very upbeat and successful conference this past week the Republicans are clearly in the lead. John Kerry is at a huge disadvantage because he has put forth no discernable message or vision for what he would do as president. And it could be bordering on to late for him to do that. This week polls are showing that independants responded very favorably to to President Bush's wonderful speech on Thursday. What this means for Kerry is that being the "not Bush" candidate has taken him as far is it's going to. People aren't going to vote for someone just because they whine that their patriotism is being questioned. Basically Kerry's message is "vote for me I'm being smeared", and that's not going to ring true with the common man. He made a huge mistake the other day by criticizing Dick Cheney's getting a deferrment from Vietnam. A lot of people who will vote this November got deferrments and should not be held in a bad light because of it. Also Kerry failes to mention that he joined the Navy because his deferrment request was denied.......you do the math. But that's not the point really. The point is Kerry doesn't take the war we are in seriously, the only thing he takes seriously is what the latest focus group indicates. And at this point his focus groups are telling him that not everyone hates Bush as much as the leadership of the NOW organization. And regardless of how much they harp on it people aren't going to go for the Bush is Hitler ideology.