My stupefaction that, despite the glaring missteps in Iraq, Bush remains deadlocked with Kerry, has turned into a nerve-wracking epiphany: To the rest of the country, it's not so obvious (as it is to sequestered Seattleites) that Bush needs to go. I'm feeling like elitist New York movie critic Pauline Kael, who, after Nixon trounced McGovern, famously quipped, "I don't know how Richard Nixon could have won. I don't know anybody who voted for him." There's a lot riding on Boston, and Kerry needs to come out on the other side with rock star numbers. Unfortunately, this trick rests not with telegenic John Edwards, but rather with Kerry himself, who the Economist recently described this way: "He looks like a portrait of himself by Edvard Munch... Mr. Kerry could put a hummingbird into a coma." Fear of a Bush reelection remains at code Blue--or Guarded. --JF