Lexington

摘要

It has been a miserable fortnight for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. Before the Iowa caucuses, it looked as if the Democrats were bent on self-destruction. Howling Howard Dean was streets ahead of the pack. And the president's main strategist, Karl Rove, was salivating at the prospect of facing an airy-fairy north-eastern liberal. "Please nominate this man", pleaded the cover of the conservative National Review. The new front-runner is an altogether more substantial figure. John Kerry not only looks the part of a president, with his lanky frame and Mount Rushmore profile. He acts like one as well—and has been preparing himself for the job since his teens, when he was much taken with the fact that he had the same initials as JFK. It is hard to imagine Mr Kerry saying that he isn't sure whether Osama bin Laden is guilty-or screaming like a banshee in front of a crowd of college kids.