A small cheer from the home crowd

The Boston Globe hasn't always been as kind to the Kerry campaign as you might hope from a candidates hometown paper, but columnist Alex Beam, certainly not a Kerry cheerleader, offers a fairly positive assessment of recent developments and points out "There are 77 days left until the New Hampshire primary, and, even with the Thanksgiving to New Year's blur, that is more than enough time for the junior senator from Massachusetts to overtake former Vermont governor Howard Dean in the Granite State polls."

He quotes another hometown observer, writing that "Boston Herald columnist Margery Eagan has correctly observed that a generation of pundits and failed politicos have fashioned careers out of underestimating John Kerry. Maybe they will get another chance."

Tuck this into the 'it ain't over 'til it's over' file and hang onto your hats. We're gonna have a wild ride.