Perhaps the better question, given Kerry’s Op-Ed in today’s New York Times, is: Did he ever stop running?

Launching a pre-emptive strike against Bush’s address to the nation tonight (which we will live-Slog!), Kerry hits some rhetorical themes sure to give you deja-vu from last summer. He says Bush is out of touch with reality (“The reality is that the Bush administration’s choices have made Iraq into what it wasn’t before the war - a breeding ground for jihadists”). He says Bush has a credibility gap (“So what should the president say tonight? The first thing he should do is tell the truth to the American people”). He says Bush’s hubris hurts us all (“Our mission in Iraq is harder because the administration ignored the advice of others”).

What’s the difference between now and last summer, when Kerry said all of this ad naseum and wasn’t able to dismantle Bush’s aura as the tough, on-the-right-track commander in chief? With soldiers’ deaths continuing to mount, WMDs still non-existent, and Rumsfeld talking about a 12-year battle against the insurgents, people who were willing to give Bush more time to do things his way are starting to get fed up.