Here's John Kerry, speaking over the weekend about using his vast influence to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq:

I know that as president there's huge leverage that will be available to me, enormous cards to play, and I'm not going to play them in public. I'm not going to play them before I'm president.

Might this be what Kerry's talking about?

By asking “Is Kerry too smart for America?” and making the points that it makes, the article is also clearly inviting readers to ask: “Is America too stupid for Kerry?”

And of course author Jan Christoph Wiechmann goes on to point out that, according to Bill Clinton, 90 percent of Europeans are behind Kerry. But this “has to remain a secret.” Otherwise the Rightists (die Rechten) in America would once again defame him as a European.”

Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, 11 000 Einwohner, zwei Tankstellen. Der Ort bringt alles mit, was die Präsidentenwahl am 2. November entscheidet: eine bröckelnde Mittelklasse, Soldaten im Irak und die Sehnsucht nach einem führungsstarken Präsidenten, mit dem man gern mal grillen würde. Kerry müsste, so raten die Demoskopen, etwas mehr Johnny sein und weniger Senator, er müsste etwas von der Dynamik Bill Clintons zeigen oder dem Charme John Edwards', den er als Running Mate auswählte, weil er so etwas wie der Anti-Kerry ist, der Grillmeister an der Seite des Oberkommandeurs.

Lansdowne is indeed in plenty of trouble with the Gemans! Here's the translation:

Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, 11 000 inhabitants, two gas stations. The place brings everything what decides the presidential election on the 2nd November: a crumbling middle class, soldier in Iraq and the longing for a guidance-strong president with whom one would have a barbecue gladly sometimes. Kerry would have to be, advise the pollsters, a little bit more Johnny and less senator, he would have to show somewhat of the dynamism of Bill Clinton or the charm the John Edwards' whom he selected as a Running Mate selected because he is a sort of the anti-Kerry, the grill master in the side of the upper commander.

Today, Lansdowne?

Tomorrow, the world?

(No jokes about the grillmeister's hot dogs, OK?)

UPDATE: As Glenn Reynolds points out, Washington journalists favor Kerry by a margin of 12 to 1.

Kerry is more popular with journalists than with Germans?

Hot dog! That's an enormous private card! Will the Germans catch up with the barbecue?

UPDATE: Ed Morrisey offers a much more detailed analysis of Kerry's Nixonian "secret plan" (with a slightly different take on the Germans):

John Kerry -- the new Nixon! He won't tell you anything about how he plans to convince the French and Germans to put troops they don't have into Iraq in numbers great enough to have us go home and leave them holding the bag. If that sounds like a stupid deal for the French and Germans to accept -- even Republicans wouldn't demand that of them -- Kerry wants you to know that his superior brain power will convince them to do it. Why? Because he has a secret plan, and you don't get to see it unless you elect him President. (Via Glenn Reynolds.)

“Should such an ignorant people (Americans) lead the world?”