CONVENTIONAL WISDOM has it that John Kerry’s problems began with a convention that produced no bounce, followed by a Swift boat veterans offensive that tarnished the senator’s warrior image.

But the argument here is Kerry’s downward spiral actually began the night before the opening of the bounceless convention–when Kerry bounced a ceremonial first pitch in front of home plate at Fenway Park at the Red Sox-Yankees game (“I held back,” Kerry would tell reporters after the game, saying he deliberately went easy on a nervous Massachusetts Guardsman who happened to be on the receiving end of the pitch. “I tried to lob it gently.”)

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