The word that I fear most about the Kerry campaign -- malaise (unfortunately, perception is more important than facts)

The following column and thoughts from the Washington Post captioned "Time for Kerry to Change His Pitch" by Tina Brown best address my concern when I say things such as it is not too late. At some point it does become too late. The column notes:

The Kerry campaign has been afflicted by bubble sickness. Just as everything Bush does is seen through the prism of winning, everything Kerry does has been viewed as a symptom of malaise.

The phenomenon that bedevils Kerry, however, is that all the bad news has been around so long it's become the new baseline. A version of olfactory fatigue has set in with the electorate. Just as you can't smell onions when they have been around for a while, you cease to notice the consequences of bad decisions as long as they don't get dramatically worse. Bad news, once it's had time to settle in, isn't news anymore.