...the real [Republican] energy will be spent proving that Kerry isn't solid or strong, that he is, in fact, effete and unreliable.... the Republican National Committee gave a sneak preview last week, e-mailing to reporters a quote from Teresa Heinz Kerry about her husband: "You know, I say he's like a good wine. You know, it takes time to mature, and then it gets really good and you can sip it. I think he's at that stage now."

Why, you might ask, would the Republicans distribute something so innocuous? Because it implies the Heinz Kerrys are wine drinkers. They probably eat quiche too. Early in the campaign, Kerry committed the abomination of ordering Swiss cheese instead of Cheez Whiz for his Philly cheesesteak -- that's almost as grievous as asking for a "splash" of coffee, as Bush the Elder once did. (Bush the Younger has been careful to let us know that he favors bologna sandwiches.) Furthermore, John Kerry speaks fluent French. It is no accident that a White House staffer once said, "He looks French." The Heinz Kerrys hang out on Nantucket and in Sun Valley, Idaho. They don't own a ranch or cut scrub with a chainsaw. He often shows up at Davos. He went to a fancy private school in Switzerland. He and Teresa met at a global-warming conference, for God's sake! He wears pastel Hermes ties — a pink one at his Wisconsin victory celebration. And this guy calls himself an American!

--Joe Klein in this week's Time

Like the gold-encrusted doors to his Fifth Avenue apartment, everything Donald Trump says is over the top, outrageous and in desperate need of being toned down by 20 percent.... The funny thing is, people are buying every morsel he has to sell. "The Apprentice" is the most addictive new show on television, with more than 18 million viewers tuning in every week to watch Trump conduct his own master class in megasuccess.

--cover story of the current Newsweek

Bizarre -- Democratic voters embrace a candidate who is -- like the party's two most beloved presidents of the twentieth century, JFK and FDR -- a patrician, in a year when even Trump's bling-blig is hip again, and the Republicans think they're going to win with -- let's call it what is -- class warfare.

Almost in passing, Klein notes that

In Wisconsin [Kerry] won the blue-collar vote—as he has throughout his career.

Uh-huh. Americans don't hate the rich. Aren't you non-liberals always telling us that?