MoDo

Great column, as always. And as always she makes one subtle, yet crucial near-miss that leaves the column just shy of being spot-on.

The superdelegates are watching to see if Obama can stiffen his backbone. After seeing their candidates lose races they should have won in 2000 and 2004 because they flinched at Republican political waterboarding, Democrats do not want to watch the bully swipe their lollipop a third time.

In my estimation, Kerry floundered because he was seen as incredibly out-of-touch. He gave long, windy speeches in a speaking style vaguely reminiscent of Bill Buckley, that attempted to touch on all things to all people and went nowhere. They were like long, meandering hikes through the woods of some far-off place that no independent voter could really recall. And if they touched on a salient issue or two, they did so in the vaguest of terms - leaving the voter feeling less touched than brushed by the wind of a strange passerby briskly making his way to wherever he was going, as you were doing the same. Many of the same problems exhibitted by Gore in 2000 but compounded exponentially.

I saw Kerry on C-SPAN recently, addressing a crowd of young voters on the incredible difference Obama would make to politics - largely due to his personal style. I must say, the guy knew what he was talking about. And he conveyed that portrayal of Obama much more convincingly and personably than he conveyed anything in 2004.