Since other people are doing it, I'll jump into the fray. Here's my advice for the Kerry campaign: just read the headlines. Really, I think Kerry should begin every stump appearance with a little riff where he just picks up a local paper and reads the headlines that contain bad news: casualties in Iraq, layoffs, foreclosures, high oil prices, record deficits. The biggest advantage Bush has is that the news of the campaign will ecplise the actual news of the country and the world. The more the electorate forgets what is actually happening, the better it will be for Bush. So Kerry needs to use the campaign to remind people of just how screwed up everything is. This strikes me as a good way of doing it.
Christopher Hayes is the host of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes. He is an editor at large at the Nation and a former senior editor of In These Times.