Kerry's botched joke is likely to trigger in heartland Republicans and Democrats a sense that the elitist Liberals of the Northeast and California coasts are still, at their core, anti-military and soft on national security issues.
While that may not be true, that's what Kerry's remarks will signal.
As I have told you before, there is a strong feeling among Americans who do not live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan that the National Democrats have a powerful Peacenik gene which, in spite of the stage play put on at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, remains as a central element of their DNA.
If the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision on Gay Marriage energizes just one percent of Conservatives who would not otherwise have voted, that could mean an additional 850 votes for a Republican incumbent.
If the highly-touted GOP turn-out program produces an additional one percent, a Republican incumbent may get a total of 1,700 additional votes.
If John Kerry convinces yet another one percent that, no matter how angry they may be at the GOP leadership the Democrats cannot be trusted on the national security front, that may total to something on the order of 2,500 additional votes.
That won't help an incumbent who is behind by double-digits, but in a 50-50 race, that could well mean the difference, in a GOP district, of an incumbent losing by 500 votes, and winning by 2,000 - well outside the range of an automatic recount.
Republicans should be inviting John Kerry to campaign for them.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the CNN article; a Mullfoto which will soothe your soul; and the Catchy Caption of the day - a different twist on the HALP photo.
Rich Galen
Rich Galen has been a press secretary to Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. Rich Galen currently works as a journalist and writes at
Mullings.com.