Kerry now appears to be making that personal-story connection that he needs to take it over the top. Bush may have flubbed up the story about Missy (wife of soldier killed in Iraq) with his bizarre comment about loving her but the general idea was good. No matter how amusing we may find it that Bush thinks he can relate to the regular person on the street, the Republicans had successfully labeled Kerry as out of touch with those voters. The Bush bubble was popped last week and Kerry now is making that connection or at least the media is now talking about it. (A fickle bunch in the media, aren't they?)
"He's not Clinton, but he's close," Ms. Curtis said. "I didn't see that till today." She had watched intently on Sunday afternoon as Senator John Kerry listened to a newly divorced steelworker, locked out of his factory job for 11 months, haltingly describe how his daughter had told him not to worry - that her mother and grandmother had "taken care of" her first homecoming dress.
"I went to pieces," said Ms. Curtis, a swing voter who said that she supported President Bush after the Republican convention but switched to Mr. Kerry after seeing him up close.
If Ms. Curtis and a few other previously undecided Ohioans who came to Mr. Kerry's town-hall meeting here and some new polls are any indication, swing voters are giving Mr. Kerry a second look after his strong showing in the first presidential debate. And they are liking what they see.
"I just think he's got the pulse of the middle class," Ms. Curtis said afterward. "He needs to do this in so many places in the next 30 days. He's got to get out there and let them know that he's supporting us."
