Do You Think So?

Kerry Campaign Manager Mary Beth Cahill admitted that maybe she did make a mistake (or thirty):

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) -- The campaign manager for Sen. John Kerry's failed presidential bid said Wednesday she regrets underestimating the impact of an attack advertisement that questioned Kerry's Vietnam War record.
Mary Beth Cahill, who spoke at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government with Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager, said the Massachusetts senator's campaign initially thought there would be "no reach" to the ad from Swift Vets and POWs for Truth.
Instead, the ad, which initially aired in just three states, became a central issue of the campaign, eventually forcing Kerry to personally deny the group's allegations that he did not deserve his combat medals.
"This is the best $40,000 investment made by any political group, but it was only because of the news coverage that it got where it did," she said.

It was because of blogs Mary Beth (a fact that was mentioned in passing in the last paragraph however grudgingly and without using the word blog) that the story had legs. Besides, she never hit on the most salient point; Kerry was a horrible candidate. Whom did Kerry inspire? Easy, no one.