Mr. Kerry, she said, really seems to care about the middle class, however wealthy he is.

By the time the candidates reached Dayton, Mr. Kerry seemed more energetic than ever and received his biggest cheers.

Mr. Kerry doesn't seem to understand that it takes a certain kind of talent to play dress-up and deliver lines like "Bring it on."

In an interview last fall, Mr. Kerry seemed at one point to suggest that he thought his antiwar activities had doomed his political career.

Yet Mr. Kerry seems to be falling back.

But even as Mr. Kerry seemed to follow that advice, retreating to Washington, he was not going away.

Mr. Kerry himself had doubts about the policy but never seemed to question where his own duty lay.

Mr. Kerry genuinely seems not to care about such criticism these days.

In short, Mr. Kerry seemed on the verge of winning the three states that most pundits believed could sway the election.