Sandman wrote:

2. He kept the reference to "Republican critics" prefectly and
intentionally vague, anticipating just the response the right-wing
bobble-heads would come up with in knee-jerk fashion - claiming that Kerry
was talking about Bush. Kerry didn't have to name Bush, and purposely
didn't - his remarks on their face can be taken as innocently criticizing
the right-wing idiots resposible for those pasted pictures of Jane Fonda
next to Kerry on their websites at anti-war rallies during the Vietnam War.
Meanwhile, he's making the right-wingers look like a bunch of frightened,
irrational whiners, pretending he was deliberately aiming his attacks at
Bush personally. So Kerry got away with it all - without mentioning Bush,
the message of his opponents is making Bush out to be the target, which
gives Kerry great publicity, and makes Bush look bad, while really only
pointing vaguely to his detractors as a whole. And he's reaped a ton of
free TV coverage as a result of it all.

This is why Kerry will win. He's smart enough to think of ways to
make Bush look like a fool on his own without handlers or advisors.