About the only negative words uttered about Kerry came from Dean himself, who drew CNN coverage with a carefully timed speech to his supporters. Dean said the race was a choice between him and "somebody who's been in the Senate forever, who has taken an awful lot of special-interest money."
Oh, there was also a jibe from Hotline's Craig Crawford, who described Kerry on MSNBC as a bit stiff, "every woman's dream second husband."
Once the networks called Tennessee at 8 p.m. EST, the floodgates were open. Woodruff said of Edwards and Clark that Kerry "is cleaning their clock." Paul Begala noted that "Howard Dean collapsed, even though endorsed by Al Gore" in the ex-veep's home state of Tennessee (which, of course, cost Gore the presidency in 2000).
"I can't see how Wes Clark goes on. The numbers are just too bleak," Jeff Greenfield said.
Edwards could "look like a spoilsport" if he stays in the race, said Russert, and will come under intense pressure to pull out.
Kerry got upstaged a bit by his campaign's decision to hand out his speech text. CNN's Kelly Wallace reported at 8:39 that the candidate would say "Americans are voting for change -- east and west, and now in the south" -- six minutes before Kerry said exactly that.
Kerry keeps using the same line every Tuesday, about "older" and "grayer" veterans who still know how to fight for their country. It's a great line, but isn't it time for some new material? He also recycled some other material.
Kerry's failure to sprinkle his victory speech with some "new" news hurt him in the cable coverage. CNN broke away early, MSNBC a few minutes later, and Fox didn't break into O'Reilly to carry it at all. |
