The last time my mood about the upcoming election was polled by the Dkos community, I was pessimistic. It wasn't that I had no faith in Kerry -- I did. In fact, all things being equal, I thought Kerry had the upper hand. But I was convinced that the Spain bombings were merely a foreshadowing of things to come in America, and that instead of ushering in a new socialist party, a major terror strike in the US would ensure Bush's reelection, and a new era of reckless governance, we have not seen the likes of since the Roman Empire.
However, since then, it's been nothing but bad news for Bush. The news of his 300,000 jobs created in March (almost matching the average monthly job creation rate in Clinton's entire presidency), were quickly washed over with evidence from Richard Clark and the 9/11 commission that Bush was asleep at the wheel in 2001. Bush has been suffering a little shock and awe of his own, being attacked on his strongest front -- the war on terrorism. After this onslaught of questions about Bush's competency on homeland security, it's
just possible that another terrorist strike would only serve to bolster the claims made by Richard Clark, and tilt the scales even further for Kerry.
In addition to this, we can finally put to bed the Republican's belief that the key to reelection is defining your opponent early with an onslaught of negative advertising. They have spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising in key markets, enacting the old "Kerry is a tax-and-spend liberal" game plan, with absolutely zero results. Again, it's just possible that Bush's war chest is a paper tiger.
These two factors -- Richard Clark's testimony, and the ineffectiveness of Bush's advertising have caused me to upgrade my mood from pessimistic to optimistic.
But what do I know? How is everyone else feeling?