Gary Andres in National Review Online notes that John Kerry is not connecting very well with a critical demographic:
Among Democrats, however, not only are the overall affirmative percentages on both questions lower, but some significant sex differences emerge. While 70 percent of Democratic men want their kids to grow up like Kerry, only 46 percent of Democratic women do — a 24 percentage-point difference. And 62 percent of Democratic men want to spend an hour with Kerry, while only 49 percent of that party's women voters do.
I can't speak for women, and I'd be voting for Bush anyway, but maybe they're just a little bit spooked by all the grappling and manhandling between Kerry and his shiny new running mate. When people start putting together video clips like this (warning -- music) you might want to reconsider your strategy.
And of course, this is a deliberate strategy -- you know these guys are choreographed more closely than ballet dancers, with focus groups determining everything from their speeches to their shirt-colors, so this phony horseplay was approved from On High, as it were. The problem is that it looks as creepy as Al "Lurch" Gore did in its various incarnations.
Remember your heritage: White men don't hug.