Richard Reeves' Summary of Kerry

I like Richard Reeves' summary of John Kerry:

If you teach (and I do), Kerry is of a type, a smart guy who gets it all down, synthesizes it beautifully, and then tries to give you back what he thinks you want. The defining moment of his campaign, I thought, was his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. It was an A paper without a single original thought. I counted 15 lifts from archived presidential speeches, most of them by John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

Many in the coming months and years will attempt to discern the reasons for Kerry's defeat. But it comes down to his failure to elucidate a clear agenda for a Kerry presidency. Rather than standing for something, he threw out what he thought would resonate with voters. While it obviously got him significant support, it was not enough to push him over the top.