Patience

At least two of the big newspapers all but called Kerry's candidacy dead in the water -- months before the convention! Why? Because he didn't engage in back-and-forth, rat-a-tat-tat with the Bush campaign's high-priced media baiting, those $60 million in ads spent in early spring that made no noticable ding in the armor of the Kerry campaign.

Kerry's patience in preparing his campaign for the long haul is reassuring. It is EXACTLY the type of behavior that was NOT exhibited by the current team in the White House, most noticably in their fevered rush to go to war. Their impatience was akin to a spoiled child's inability to wait till Christmas morning to open gifts -- they had to tear them open the night before in a rash, undisciplined tearing and thrashing.

Let us be assured that Senator Kerry's pacing for the long haul in this campaign is indicative of his strength in being able to thatch together a foreign policy torn asunder by the Bush administration, in being able to throughtfully structure a long-term vision for 21st century foreign policy that goes beyond the Bush "vision" of exploding, flattening and shocking.