"If this campaign is about Kerry, Bush will win the election."

GOP upbeat after Kerry's awful month

NEW YORK -- On the eve of the Republican National Convention, oneof the party's foremost leaders from the South was asked about GeorgeW. Bush's chances in November. He replied, in a moment of rarecandor: "If this campaign is about Kerry, Bush will win the election.If this campaign is about Bush, he will win my state." That is, theGOP must make sure the focus is on Sen. John Kerry to avoid beingreduced to the solid Republican South -- and a lost election.

That is no insult to President Bush, who this year has faced andweathered one political mishap after another, along with a Democraticopposition fiercely determined to remove him …