Senior Kerry advisor Tad Devine, seen in this file photo, assures us that this drop in the polls has been in their plans all along. On one of the network shows recently Devine spun the downward spiral as some kind of wily strategy (perhaps akin to Kerry's secret plan?). The NYT has him saying much the same thing:

Mr. Devine said any lack of clarity of Mr. Kerry's message was due to the campaign's running few advertisements in the past five weeks. He said the polls are showing a downturn they always planned for.