The comment heard round the world by moms (soccer, terror and otherwise). -- Sen. Kerry speaks for Mary Cheney.

-- "The better part of valor is discretion." Henry IV. William Shakespeare.

-- "For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.'" John Greenleaf Whittier.
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I started my 10-09-04 post entitled "Debate No. 2. -- We have a new President" off with the paragraph:

"I enjoyed Debate No. 2 very much. Kerry kept Bush on the defensive."

I concluded it with the following:

"And although when making perdictions the smart guys will throw in a little caveat, such as so many things can change between now and then (and they can), I say my prediction remains even if we capture bin Laden. Short of Kerry screwing up (one of his real specialities prior to around the time of his visit with Mr. Clinton), what we saw last night confirmed what we thought.

"It's time for a change.

"So let it be written, so let it be done."

I have thought about Kerry's Mary Cheney comment all week. My initial reaction was not good; my lingering feelings about it make me feel that the comment could be his -- our -- downfall in 2004.

I did not think Bob Schieffer served the debate audience particularly well when he asked: "Do you believe homosexuality is a choice? "

When Schieffer asked this, I said out loud, "What?", and thought to myself, what a dumb question for a presidential debate.

Bush replied: "You know, Bob, I don't know. I just don't know."

I read something the following day being critical of Bush for dodging the question. Baloney. I thought it was the most honest answer he made during any of the three debates. If he doesn't know, he doesn't know.

I would have said the same thing.

I don't know, and I have never spent anytime much wondering about it. I feel about as qualified to answer such a question as to opine on how one feels before taking his last breath here on earth. I have never been there or done that. Unlike things I have experienced, I cannot stand in someone else's shoes who has.

I have not studied it; plain and simple, I don't know. I do know, and agree word for word what Bush next said after saying he didn't know whether homosexuality is a choice.

"I do know that we have a choice to make in America and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity. It's important that we do that."

When it became Kerry's time, and he said "We're all God's children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as," I said out loud, how in the hell does he know," and thought to myself, does he think he knows everything?

I probably wouldn't have reacted as harshly toward Kerry -- and recognize that I am talking about reacting in the privacy of my living room rather than in a public place -- had he not mentioned the Vice President's daughter by name, and then began dispensing his superior knowledge as if from Mt. Sinai, presuming to know what Mary Cheney would say.

The morning after Debate No. 3 my wife Sally asked if "the Cheney thing" had bothered me (we had watched the debate in different rooms, and we had not discussed the comment after the debate). I told her I was still thinking about it. She let me know her feelings, and they weren't kind toward Kerry.

I am through thinking about it.

Whether it was a cheap shot or an indiscretion -- I don't buy the post debate spin of it being a compliment to the Cheney's (spare us here Senator) -- the damage was done. How much damage? Only time and the voters will tell.

In my call quoted about made following Debate No. 2, I removed the wiggle room normally accompanying perdictions, such as by saying that so many things can change between now and Nov. 2, etc., and even went so far as to say my prediction remained even if we capture bin Laden before Nov. 2.

But I did qualify by saying "[s]hort of Kerry screwing up (one of his real specialities prior to around the time of his visit with Mr. Clinton).

I began this post with Falstaff's famous dictum that "The better part of valor is discretion" from Henry IV.

Without question both candidates left several opportunities on the table during Debate No. 3. Had Kerry taken the high road and not mentioned the Vice President's daughter, no doubt some of the pundits and talking heads following the date might have said he missed an opportunity.

But to me the opportunity he missed was the opportunity to have shown discretion, and as a result, compassion, conservative or otherwise.

Had he not passed up this opportunity, what I have characterized as discretion might have been perceived by many as being "presidential."

While such discretion would not really have been presidential, it might have provided the missing ingredient for Kerry, namely, I like that about the man, I like the man now, he is likable, something that would persuade the unpersuaded who remained such as scoring Kerry the winner after Debate Nos. 1 and 2.

(In my 10-09-04 post quoted above about Debate No. 2, I put it this way -- and this is just from my perspective: "Kerry still hasn't given me the comfort level that I would want to have a beer with the guy when all is graveyard talk, no cameras around, etc., something many would die to do with Clinton; to want to go running with him as I would with Bush.")

Passing up the opportunity might, especially after his not doing so became the topic of praise and admiration, may have been the knockout punch that Kerry -- while winning all three debates -- failed to deliver.

And for Kerry, such a missed opportunity is important because of the reputation Kerry justifiably deserves of being an opportunist (this is the polite way to describe his pattern of changing his views; after the debate the Bush and Cheney camp describe it as being willing to say anything to get a vote).

But the opportunity was missed, and without question gave the Bush campaign some ammunition, a "diversion," and -- I sense -- in the process Kerry's campaign lost its momentum that began when he talked with President Clinton and the debates began (and for the first time since the debates began, put Kerry rather than Bush on the defensive).

For all sad words of tongue and pen and presidential debates, the saddest are these, "It might have been."