Stop Kerry media story begins

Check out NBC Nightly News tonight.

NBC Nightly News' top political story was "Who Can Stop John Kerry?"

This sounds familiar, huh?  It highlighted a number of the possible attacks on Kerry.  First, it mentioned Dean's attack on Kerry's ineffectiveness as a Senater... including the nice tidbit that of over 300 bills sponsored by Kerry, only 9 have passed.  Second, it showed Wes Clark criticizing Kerry's record on affirmative action.  Finally, it highlighted Edwards' claim that his background makes him more suited to populism than Kerry's does (implying in the process that Kerry's populist rhetoric is not genuine).

To be fair, it also noted Kerry's strength among veterans and the quality of his television ads.

The story also pointed out that Arizona is a vote-by-mail state, so Dean already has many early votes already.  Brokaw also made sure to point out that Chris Matthews' whole show this Sunday will be with Howard Dean.  Could it be that Tipp O'Neill's former political aide is less than enthused about the Senator from his state?

It was not a good news day for Bush either.  NBC's OTHER big political story was about his efforts to block the 9/11 commission.  The story had lots of shots of Bush intercut with the post-WTC fallout, as well as teary testimony from 9/11 families wondering why Bush was blocking it.  Also, a number of commission members blatantly said "we shouldn't stop our investigation for politics".  Interesting stuff.