Some have suggested that Kerry, who has a reputation for appearing dour, needs to go to charm school before running against Dubya. Big mistake. We don't need more politicians pretending to be happy-go-lucky glad-handers when that is not there natural state of being. Bush can pull it off because he IS a happy-go-lucky glad-hander (who just also happens to be a mean-ass son-of-a-bitch whenever he is crossed). We should not fall into the trap that the Punditburo does of calling on any Democratic candidate to alter his personality to be more like Bush because (1) said candidate has to demonstrate that Bush's personality is actually a net-negative in a President and (2) the pundits will just turn on anyone who does this and claim they are engaging in fake populism. If Kerry is the kind of guy who doesn't smile all that often then he should just continue being the kind of guy who doesn't smile all that often. One thing I think Gore did right during 2000 was to address the "wooden" issue by playing up to the charicature instead of trying to deny it. He could then go on to say that being "wooden" is not as bad as being ignorant. Unfortunately, he didn't always succeed in delivering that second message.