Sen. Kerry, read my lips: Shut up!! -- They don't call him the Dean for nothing.

Do you remember an 8-29-04 post that noted:

"Today on The Georgia Gang Bill Shipp questioned the sanity of those running Kerry's campaign, noting that Bush must have a spy within the campaign's ranks suggesting moves guaranteed to fail (this is a lot of paraphrasing other than the "spy" bit)."

"In particular, Mr. Shipp wondered why in the world would the campaign have sent former Sen. Max Cleland to Crawford, Texas in the recent campaign stunt, something that further focuses on Vietnam, an issue that is killing Kerry. (We discussed the stunt in an earlier post entitled "I hope Cleland and the press corps flew Delta -- Otherwise what a waste of our Kerry political contributions.") "

Well, it got even worst this week.

I can understand why my thoughts aren't worth the energy it takes to type them, but the Dean? He is read and respected not only in Atlanta, but in Washington. You know that; I know that; Georgia knows that. He isn't known as Georgia's Dean of Politics and Georgia's Dean of Journalism for nothing.

If Max Cleland had listened Bill Shipp in 2002 (telling him -- whether this is an appropriate time to remind us of it or not -- the same thing Zell told Max), he would be a Senator today rather than a bitter surrogate out campaigning for someone with whom I am running out of patience.

Just as Kerry will not pick up on what I posted last week about "It's terrorism stupid," a strong hint to quit talking about Vietnam, he won't pay attention to the same thing Mr. Shipp said on The Georgia Gang in late August and then again before the RNC in yet another classic Bill Shipp keeper.

And its not just Bill Shipp. It is the press; it's the obvious; but the man won't listen, or else he needs to buy some advice or if he is getting good advice, heed it.

Many will say, hey Sid, Rome wasn't built in a day. We still have the debates and plenty of time, etc.

My response. Kerry wasn't an ideal candidate coming in, and he should have been way ahead by now, and upping his margin on a daily basis by beating Bush like a drum about the head and shoulders on the domestic issues.

He should have a comfortable margin so that the concern going into the debates is holding the margin, and looking to improve it.

But at some point it begins to appear that hey, maybe the man just isn't up to the task.

We remember 1992. Bush I squandered a 90% approval rating when it began to appear to the undecided voters that either he didn't want or wasn't up for another four years or Jim Baker (I admit to having a lot of respect for this person's abilities) had lost interest in his campaign.

At midnight after Bush's acceptance speech Kerry goes live and guess what he talked about? You got it. Maybe it is like Zell said about Bush I in 1992. Kerry just doesn't get it.

This messing up stuff must quit. The more I type the angrier I get, something that apparently happened to the Senator when the clock struck midnight Thursday night.

OK, I will shut up and get to the reason for this post. You remember the "this is a test, this is only a test." Well truthfully, as I alluded to above, the Dean has done another one of his classics, and my posting it for you started out as the only reason for this post.

Excerpts will not do it justice; thus, the whole column.

I turn it over to the Dean, as in Bill Shipp:
______________

How Max may pass Zell in helping Bush

So we thought Sen. Zell Miller was President Bush's Democratic ace in the hole from Georgia. Perhaps we were wrong. Max Cleland may turn out to be Republican Bush's more helpful (though unintentional) Democratic collaborator. What is it about us Georgians that makes us act this way?

Former Sen. Cleland showed up at the president's Texas ranch last week waving a letter demanding that Bush denounce a series of TV ads condemning Democratic challenger John Kerry's activities in the Vietnam War.

Acting on orders from Democratic campaign headquarters, Cleland's appearance in Texas succeeded in keeping alive the "Vietnam Swift Boats" controversy for another three days. Prolonging the story seemed to suit Kerry just fine. He apparently relishes talk about the Vietnam era. Cleland's appearance also keeps Kerry in the gold medal race for "Worst Presidential Campaign." Previous record holders: Vice President Al Gore (2000) and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis (1988).

Max's insistence on continuing the Vietnam talk may be unwittingly helping the president's re-election effort more than Zell ever could, even with his best "Why I Hate My Own Party" speech.

As long as the Vietnam story is alive, the media are jubilant. They don't have to focus on the economy, health care, the old-hat Iraq war, loss of jobs, immigration policy, runaway deficit spending, erosion of constitutional rights or anything else that gives Kerry a chance to win the White House.

The presidential election of 2004 started as a referendum on Bush's performance in several areas of legitimate national concern.

The GOP has successfully refocused the contest on Kerry's Vietnam record and on arcane rules for financing campaign commercials. Oddly, Kerry's advisers have accommodated the Republicans, answering every charge, tit-for-tat.

Unless the Democrats extract themselves from the Tales of Vietnam, Kerry's campaign is headed into oblivion.

Hollywood may one day turn "The John Kerry Story" into a big-budget movie. The scenario may go something like this: A well-meaning senator decides to run for president to save the country from what he sees as a bumbling crew of careless, big-spending politicians who have chilled the economy, started a pointless war and made the whole world mad at us. Just as his campaign gets rolling, the senator hires a beautiful consultant who whispers into his ear that no one really cares about the economy and that other stuff. Everybody wants to know about what he did in the Vietnam War. Unbeknownst to him, the consultant is a secret agent for the other guys - or maybe an operative for another potential candidate from his own party who wants the presidency in 2008. You can guess the ending. But, as our own Sen. Miller has said, Kerry is an "authentic American hero."

So is Max Cleland, in my view. He courageously overcame terrible injuries suffered in Vietnam to become one of Georgia's most beloved political figures. Along the way, however, Cleland developed a tin ear for politics. He lost his 2002 senatorial re-election bid because he listened to too many of the same breed of consultants who are guiding Kerry down the Dukakis-Gore path to self-destruction.

In 1988, Massachusetts Gov. Dukakis marched away from the national Democratic Convention in Atlanta with a 17-point lead. Dukakis lost the election after he became obsessed with answering and re-answering Republican charges about a convict named Willie Horton. In 2000, Al Gore, armed with a resume that made him easily the better qualified candidate against an inarticulate and inexperienced Texas governor, inexplicably approved a consultant's recommendation that the candidate make over his personality in mid-campaign. Gore became first-rate TV entertainment. Voters never knew which Al Gore might appear next - the alpha male or the thoughtful intellectual or the boyish wannabe. Gore saw his shot at the top dwindle from a poll-predicted landslide to a razor-thin margin that allowed Bush eventually to occupy the White House.

Unless Kerry gets back to present-day realities, his campaign appears destined to wind up on the same political junk heap as Gore's and Dukakis'.