There is a fundamental difference between the Democratic and Republican conventions. The Democrats were united around a candidate; the Republicans are united around a candidate and a theme. During the convention’s first two days, GOP speakers pounded home the message and Bush and only Bush and the resolution and vision to protect the nation from terrorism and promote freedom and opportunity in the United States and worldwide. And the Republicans had effective messengers: John “tell it like it is” McCain, Rudy “I lived through 9-11” Giuliani, Arnold “macho man” Schwarzenegger, and Laura “bring it down home” Bush. To paraphrase H. G. Wells, they also learned that if you repeat something often enough people might even come to think it is true.

In effect, the Republicans have been able to do anything they want at their convention because Kerry –contrary to the strong advice offered here – did nothing at his convention to put policy pressure on the Bush administration. There is nothing now on the table that the GOP has to answer for, so they have a free hand in New York.

Finally, there is talk among Democrats that the Kerry campaign needs to be retooled. But the answer, as always, is to bring on more hucksters and more consultants. Instead, Kerry should be firing the hucksters, tearing up the scripts, and boldly presenting his ideas for the country. Kerry is perfectly capable of doing all this if he can just escape the grip of the conventional wisdom. However, unless Kerry shakes up the race and soon he may be doomed to becoming another Michael Dukakis, not just a loser, but an irrelevant loser.