A whiff of panic in the Kerry camp

New Hampshire is the meat in the Massachusetts-Vermont sandwich and is critical to the presidential aspirations of John Kerry and Howard Dean. But as Senator AWOL’s polls drop in both Iowa and the Granite State, he’s looking Dixie-way to salvage his campaign. From the Boston Globe today: “Kerry to head South for announcement”:

To political junkies, Kerry's revised itinerary speaks volumes. With all due respect for the usual caveat about polls being snapshots at a moment in time, current polling snapshots do not paint a breezy political picture for the Kerry presidential campaign in Iowa or New Hampshire. The first Iowa poll conducted by the Des Moines Register and published Aug. 3 showed former Vermont governor Howard Dean leading with 23 percent. Dean was followed by Richard Gephardt with 21 percent and Kerry with 14.

Dean also pulled ahead of Kerry in New Hampshire for the first time in a monthly poll ranking the Democratic candidates. Dean received 28 percent in the August survey conducted by the American Research Groups Inc. of Manchester, N.H., compared with 21 percent for Kerry. A similar poll in July showed Kerry leading Dean 25 percent to 19. News of the New Hampshire poll and the Kerry announcement itinerary inspired the Massachusetts GOP to send out a press release headlined, "Kerry heads South -- in polls and for his official campaign announcement."

Senator AWOL is going to have to eat a lot of corn dogs if he thinks his Boston pompadour is going to sway the voters in the birthplace of the Civil War. Suggested question for a South Carolina press conference: "Can you name five NASCAR drivers?"