Given the rigorous informality and artless effervescence required by the ceremonies of modern politics, John Kerry's rise to prominence is difficult to explain. His is a solemn New England sensibility. I have never seen him experience a moment of spontaneous wit; his nonspontaneous attempts at humor are ghastly. He is not a very compelling speaker. Indeed, when attempting to answer the most basic of questions--his position on the war in Iraq, for example--he tends to entwine himself in endless codicils and subclauses. And yet the Senator from Massachusetts breezed through the Democratic presidential primaries this year and became his party's presumptive...
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