Senator John Kerry is going to be mortgaging his house to keep his rusty barge of a campaign afloat. In the history of business and politics, there have rarely been worse investments made.

Ruben Navarette, writing a piece in today's Washington Post entitled, Kerry's Quagmire, riffs on the fact that a recent Newsweek poll shows Kerry trailing the Reverend Al Sharpton - ouch. That has got to hurt.

When the race began, I was one of those who thought John Kerry would absolutely be the candidate to beat. A liberal with military credentials, a man even the conservative pundits grudgingly respect on a personal level, even if they disdain his policies...he had a lot going for him. He appeared to have an effective package that could give George W. Bush a run for his money, much to my chagrine as I no longer wish for the success of Democrat candidates.

But my goodness, what a train wreck. Waffling on Iraq, opportunistic nonsense statements at every turn (witness his self-serving remarks the day of Hussein's capture) and a stilted, fake way of speaking that leaves the listener saying, "What the hell did he just say?"

And now he's trailing Al Sharpton. Al Sharpton!

At this point it's worst than simply not being elected President. This is a performance that shows a politician as irrelevant. And beyond his bad performance, some of his strident attacks on The President have simply decended into classlessness - witness his now famous statement about President Bush's "Effing" up Iraq. Senator, classless political non-entities don't get elected President, and if they're not careful, they don't get elected to the Senate, either.