John Kerry

are prone to trying to turn very complicated reality into a simple narrative where all the facts, logic etc led to predicable and good results. A decisive Bush, who was comfortable in who he was and someone who American felt was one of them and likeable enough to have a beer with.

Kerry was seen, not from who he is, but as the opposite of Bush - so if Bush was decisive, Kerry was indecisive. The "indecisiveness" was that he naturally qualifies everything he says - a trait that also helped him as the full sentence usually could never be misinterpreted. In addition, he spoke of process calming working for the best or least bad outcome - which was nuanced than Dean's speech, much less Bush's. Kerry did not simplify the world with similar stark sentences - "you are either with us or with the terrorist" - nor did he see a world of black and white with no shades of gray. That was combined with the supposed flippflopping.

The flipflopping came not from evaluating positions over about 30 years in the public eye - where I see the same person, matured and ever more diplomatic, but that they accepted prepackaged Bush opposition research. No Senator will agree 100% with any bill including most likely his own. It would be easy to find many "yes, but" votes that are really fundamentally the same as the "no, but" votes - they were close calls to begin with, but they shifted - that look like flip flops. However, you can't have 100% ratings on women's issues, civil rights and a 96 life time LCV score without being very very consistent. Just as consistent - and less popular on the left, Kerry is much more fiscally prudent than most, while being just as consistent on social justice.

As to the other pieces, I think Kerry is incredibly comfortable in who he is - and was so in 2004. He seemed in 1971 to know who he is was and was comfortable in his own skin then. Something Romney has never seemed to be. Not to mention - a silly comparison may say more than any complex analysis. Kerry saved a drowning hamster; Romney put a dog on the roof of a car for 12 hours! Both stories told to show how they were by family. I personally do not think calm, cool management in Romney's case. In both cases, their young kids were witnesses. That is how kids really learn their father's values. I think Kerry's kids got the better lesson and a demonstration of their dad's protectiveness and love.

PS the huge number of Romney/Kerry stories ignores that there was no ABK effort like the ABR theme and by this time 2004 -even with a later start, Kerry had won 14 out of 16 caucuses and was polling double digits againt the media's favorite "sunny Edwards" in the March primaries a week and a half away - winning them made Kerry the defacto nominee. (Oddly, though their preset memes ignore it, this is closer to 1992 where there was an ABC and Clinton did not sew up the nomination until June.)