What about Bob?

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills

Bob Shrum recently elbowed Jim Margolis, another political consultant, out of the Kerry campaign. The bad news for Kerry is that Margolis had created the most effective of Kerry's campaign spots to date, the two about his service in Vietnam. David

Axelrod, one of the top Edwards managers, said: "I think he won Iowa because of those ads." Actually, I think he won more than that and would win many more states by continuing to appeal to Vietnam veterans.

America, Henry Wallace noted, even when the New Deal had been riding high, is a normally conservative country. For a Democrat to win, he needs either emergencies like the Great Depression and World War II, or he has to appeal to a substantial group of voters who would otherwise tend Republican. Kennedy did this with Catholics in 1960, Carter with Southerners in 1976, and Clinton repeated with Southerners in 1992. For this appeal to work, it helps that the group had felt disrespected, as was the case with Catholics and Southerners, and has been the continuing plight of Viemam veterans. Kerry's ability to appeal to these veterans stood out as his campaign's principle political advantage. Why risk throwing away that advantage by getting rid of Margolis? Did Shrum simply want Margolis's share of the ad commissions, as Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times suggests? Or did he fear the inevitable attacks on the...