It felt as if there was a confident White House-in-exile aboard Senator John Kerry's campaign plane late Friday night as it winged east from Denver to Boston.
The candidate had his stocking feet up on the table in his staff cabin as he joked with his new traveling companion, John Sasso, the Massachusetts political operative brought in to punch up the candidate. Michael D. McCurry, the latest Clinton-era addition to a Clinton-larded campaign, was cheerfully schmoozing the press. Joe Lockhart, another old Clinton hand, had done that earlier in the day in a conference call from Washington, in which he declared himself pleased with "the best team on the field.''
If there was any sense of panic about polls showing Mr. Kerry trailing by eight points or more, the candidate was not letting on. Mr. Kerry's tone was mellow as he talked about the president he had spent the day attacking as not telling the truth about Iraq.
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Mr. Kerry and Mr. Bush do share some traits, of course, not least an intensive involvement in their own campaigns. Mr. Bush's aides say he likes strategy, while Mr. Kerry's aides say he likes policy.
Naturally, they're both alpha wolves. When Mr. Kerry was asked as his plane descended who was in charge of his morning campaign meetings, he replied, "I am always in charge.''
http://nytimes.com/2004/09/20/politics/campaign/20letter.html