Inside The Mind Of John Kerry

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There is a larger question too: Are these phone-booth episodes merely a campaign phenomenon, or would they be an essential part of John Kerry's governing style? It is difficult to say. Certainly, his steadiness and intelligence were roundly applauded--by members of both parties--when he chaired the POW-MIA committee. And there is not the slightest evidence that Kerry has ever panicked in a crisis. On the contrary, that seems to be when he is at his best. But we have never really seen him in a purely executive role--and his job over the next hundred days will be to convince the nation that he can be more than a legislator and more than a warrior, that he can be a President.

After I left the candidate last week, I remembered a story that one of his old Navy buddies named Paul Nace once told me. Nace bumped into Kerry as the candidate walked into Boston's Faneuil Hall for one of his last debates with Weld in 1996. Nace was amazed by the look in his friend's eye. Kerry was cool, calm, bloodthirsty--and thoroughly enjoying the moment. "I thought," Nace recalled, "'Bill Weld has no idea what's about to hit him."

I wonder if I saw that same look when Kerry said to me, "You see, I always believed I was going to win."