Lead Balloons over at Bad Attitudes has what I think is good analysis of what's happening in the Kerry campaign:

Yes, it was annoying when Dean, demonstrably the most moderate and business-friendly of any major Democratic candidate, was tarred as crazy and somehow dangerous by duplicitous Democratic rivals and sleazy journalists who knew that particular line of attack was fundamentally dishonest. But Big Howard had already inflicted on Bush wounds that may in the end prove fatal.

Now, the nomination has fallen to one of these rivals, a long, grave and serious man with an apparently inexhaustible store of patience whose principal tactic is that of the constrictor — give the other fellow enough rope to hang himself. Drive your enemy into the tar pits, and then coil on the shore to watch that he doesn’t get out.

Now, I want to win. And so, I want to fight. And I want to fight like Ulysses S. Grant or Big Howard: never stop moving, find the enemy, hit him, repeat.

But sometimes you fight hardest by waiting motionless. One question this raises is, is John Kerry really that self-assured, or is his sober, unexciting approach just a result of sloth and a general lack of direction?

As interesting as this question is, I can’t disagree with Interesting Times: at this point, it really doesn’t matter whether Kerry in fact has a brilliant and incredibly disciplined, patient plan to give swing Bush supporters room to become disaffected without alienating them. Dean-like attacks might cause them to rally ’round the GOP flag.

Kerry keeps telling us that he is a “good closer.” If that means that he’s going to let Bush continue to fuck up as president for a long time, and then unleash after lots of Bush supporters have become psychologically available, when it is too late for his more powerful victim to fight back, and before they have grown tired of Kerry attacking Bush, then I would have to say that’s a good plan. Just ask Howard Dean.

I tend to agree with this. I've always thought that when they write the history of Campaign 2004 it will (rather, should) show that it was Howard Dean that kicked down the door and it was Kerry who strolled thru it.

In fact, Hoho is still swinging, pointing out the obvious in this piece from TomPaine:

What the Founding Generation feared most has come to pass in America today. economic power has seized control of political power. The multinational corporations, financial interests and special interest lobbyists who Harry Truman called the "special privilege boys" are writing the rules for the economy, while the rest of us are struggling to make our voices heard.

Big Oil contributed $26 million to the Republican Party during the 2000 election cycle, and its executives are sitting in the vice president's office and writing the administration's energy policies. The pharmaceutical companies have made $60 million in campaign contributions over the past six years, and they're rewriting the Medicare laws. The financial services industry contributed $168 million to politicians, and the administration has proposed partially privatizing Social Security. And a majority of the reconstruction contracts in Iraq have gone to corporations headed by campaign contributors to the president.

After three years, Americans have seen what happens when Wall Street, Big Oil and Big Pharma dictate economic policies. More than two million jobs have been lost; most working Americans' wages have fallen or flatlined; more than four million Americans have lost their health insurance; and the national debt has soared to more than $26,000 for every family. Meanwhile, the wealthiest 1 percent of the population has received an average tax break of more than $50,000 per person this year alone.

Even the most misguided economic policies can be reversed. But this administration's foreign policies are costing American lives, our moral leadership and our most cherished liberties.