DROP FLIP-FLOPPER. SAY LIBERAL.

This post-debate spin is driving me crazy. Why can't the Republicans regain their footing? It shouldn't be that hard.

Quit talking about flip-flopping. Two reasons. 1) Everybody's heard it. It's had its impact, it's old. And Kerry seems persuasive and firm last night, so it's less convincing now. But more importantly, 2) the flip-flopping implies that Kerry is sometimes right. We no longer need to make that concession. Kerry wants to stop nuclear proliferation, but he's against the bunker-busting nukes that could provide a credible threat to stop nuclear proliferation. Kerry thinks 22 million Iraqis' freedom isn't worth 1000 American soldiers' lives. To be more precise, Kerry doesn't believe in freedom, can't talk about it, doesn't care, never has. Kerry won't defend us unless the action passes a "global test." Kerry thinks, in the face of 16 UN resolutions to the contrary, that summits, containment, inspections, allies could have worked, that if we'd waited longer the coalition would have increased rather than unraveled. He denigrates allies yet thinks he can persuade more, just because he's JOHN KERRY.

The Democrats are doing a fantastic job with the post-debate spin. We suck. And it's because we're insisting on a charge, flip-flopper, that is too soft.

Bush gave the cue. "That's totally absurd," was his answer to John Kerry's babble about Iraq. Truest words in the whole debate.