Kerry's nightmare

I wonder: will it wake John Kerry, one night in the near future, when his handlers are gone and his advisors have disappeared, how close he came to the presidency? It's not very likely that he'll ever see the error of his ways, but imagine with me a scenario whereby Kerry comes to the realization that he's jeopardized not just his entire campaign but the near future of the nation on a strategy, when he could've been presenting an alternate vision for the future and coasting into the Oval Office.

This is no justification of the political opponents telling what are most likely despicable lies, but ultimately, even Kerry must realize at some point that by insisting on focusing his candidacy on character traits rather than ideas, style over substance, a war of the past rather than the peace of the future, and probably some other contrasting metaphors too, he set himself up for the fall. Certainly Kerry was not a perfectly virtuous, politically prescient idol before, but nonetheless at some point he made a conscious decision to run what he must be convinced is the only way to run a modern campaign: on the cusp of a bubble. When your campaign hinges on a façade, it's easy for some mudslingers with funding to bring you down.