Since John Kerry's nomination for President, he has taken a bath in the polls. August was awful for him and thus far September is worse.

Things began to head south for Kerry at the convention, when he made his service in Vietnam his principal theme. Soon thereafter Swift Boat Veterans for Truth came along, combined with the best-selling book "Unfit for Command," disputing some of Kerry's claims about his Vietnam service - and raising questions about his trustworthiness and judgment. At first Kerry did not respond; then he responded poorly, helping the Swiftees make their case. What's more, the Swiftees are keeping on. They're not going away.

As Ross Perot used to say, think about it.

Here's Kerry, (1) maybe having embellished his war record, (2) departing Vietnam early to become an altar boy of Teddy Kennedy (fresh from his heroism at Chappaquiddick), (3) joining the likes of Jane Fonda and other screamers on the ramparts, (4) launching his political career with remarks to Congress alleging war crimes on the part of his government and fellow servicemen - and then (5) going on to use Vietnam as the centerpiece of his campaign for president in 2004.

Talk about unbright: Kerry doesn't get it. Clearly he hadn't gotten it an hour after President Bush completed his acceptance speech in New York. There was Kerry - at a midnight rally in Springfield, Ohio - in an oddly rambling attack on Messrs. Bush and Cheney and blithering yet again about a 30-year-old war divisive then and divisive now.

The polls found a post-convention bounce for Bush of 4 to 11 points - giving Bush the biggest lead of either candidate since March.

Kerry called Bill Clinton - now, because of heart surgery, out of commission for Democratic campaigning until at least October. Clinton is the only successful Democratic presidential candidate since 1976. Presumably he told Kerry some of these things. . .

Cool it about Vietnam; that war is over. Don't demonize the president; generally the voters don't like it. You may have thought the campaign was a referendum on Bush, but it's really a comparison of Bush to Kerry - and you have to make a persuasive case as to why Kerry is preferable to the incumbent. Move to the middle; far more American voters style themselves conservatives than left-wingers. Oh, and yes - if you want some of my former aides, here are their phone numbers; your Kennedy recruits obviously aren't cutting it.

If that was Clinton's advice to Kerry, there's a problem: It's largely contrary to Kerry's instincts and ideology. The man is a liberal, with a Senate voting record more left-wing than even his mentor Teddy; he picked an almost equally far-out trial lawyer for a running-mate. Continued...