Is Kerry finished as a serious candidate?

The question beginning to be asked by a growing number of bloggers.

Most of the mainstream media are taking Kerry's medal-toss contradictions pretty seriously too. Certainly, there has been no dearth of reporting nationwide since it sank in what an utter fool Kerry made of himself on yesterday's Good Morning America Show.

Here are a few examples:

Pretty important news, I'd say.

But here in backwater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where our newspaper pontificates about "the importance of an informed electorate in a democracy," there's not one word about the medal-tossing controversy and the serious damage Senator Kerry did to his credibility.

I'm not saying it was the story of the year. But I think it's fair to at least call it the story of the day.

Not in Philadelphia. Here it's not a story at all.

Instead, if you read today's paper, you'd think that Dick Cheney's the one in trouble. From today's front page story:

"It has been my view that Cheney adds nothing to the Bush ticket this time around," said Mickey Carroll, the director of the nonpartisan Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Conn. "He's a target for all sorts of criticism."

Democrats have other reasons to go after Cheney: Vice presidents typically are assigned the attack-dog role in presidential campaigns, but Cheney is particularly adept at it. Jano Cabrera, a Democratic Party spokesman, said the planned attacks on Cheney were intended to send a message that Democrats would "fight fire with fire."

Yesterday, the vice president ridiculed Kerry for once saying that foreign leaders want Bush to lose the November election. The Massachusetts senator has declined to name any of the foreign leaders who have expressed that sentiment, but when pressed on it recently, he noted that it was possible to encounter foreign leaders in New York restaurants.

"Maybe next time he'll narrow it down for us a little more. Maybe the name of the restaurant, or the leader," Cheney said to laughter from his audience at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. He also criticized Kerry for opposing at least 10 major weapons systems in the mid-1980s when the Cold War still prevailed, as well as "weapons systems vital to fighting and winning the war on terror."

Democrats responded to the Cheney attacks by producing a list of weapons the vice president opposed in the past.

Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe also questioned Cheney's standing to criticize Kerry.

"When John Kerry was risking his life for his country in Vietnam, Dick Cheney was getting deferments because, in his words, he had 'other priorities than military service.' And he feels qualified to tell us that John Kerry won't do whatever it takes to defend America?" McAuliffe told Democratic activists in a speech at the party's Washington headquarters. "He's the last guy who should be lecturing John Kerry about how to defend America and keep the faith with those who wear the uniform."

Until Kerry picks a running mate, McAuliffe, among others, is being asked to play the surrogate role that Cheney is fulfilling for Bush.

Any bets on whether it will be in tomorrow's Inquirer? Wanna lose some money?

After the complete refusal of the Inquirer to cover the UNSCAM story, I suppose I should just write this newspaper off as a lost cause. But what pisses me of is that it's the only major news source for people who have to live in this area. I know that Philadelphia isn't as cosmopolitan as New York, as important as Washington, as glamorous as Los Angeles, but having a hack newspaper keeping the "little people" in the dark doesn't help.

I find myself wondering whether the regional newspapers in other areas are giving important stories the same treatment.

Biased news is one thing. But the worst kind of bias is simply not telling people what's happening. Shame on the Inquirer.

But if this is a pattern, I would say Kerry will ride out the medal-throwing controversy, and more, in pretty good shape.

I mean if it isn't in the paper, obviously it did not happen! Cheney is finished. Not Kerry.

Ignorance is bliss.