Just for a second, forget all the speculation about John Kerry running with Hillary as his Veep and how smart that'd be. Or running with John Edwards and how smart that would be. Or running with Dick Gephardt and how dumb that would be (that would be the ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Ticket. But the Washington Post says it is a distinct possibility).

Michele Malkin notes that Kerry may have finally made a SMART political move.

Unless you've been living on Venus, you may know that the Kerry campaign so far has largely consisted of being the anti-Bush --being an almost Thomas E. Dewey-like campaign aimed to not upset anyone but being just visible enough to be an alternative to an incumbent who is perceived in some quarters to be in trouble.

Malkin (who has a great new blog by the way) reminds us that in 1992 Bill Clinton had his political-history-making Sister Souljah Moment and Malkin even gives us this link that explains exactly what it is.

In case you're too lazy to click or your finger is physically challenged (hope that is the right term), the SSM is defined by World History.Com as "...a political tactic wherein a politician publicly repudiates an allegedly extremist person, statement, or position nominally having some affiliation with the politician, in order to appeal to a large centrist voting base. The term originates from the 1992 presidential candidacy of the Democratic politician Bill Clinton" -- when Clinton publically blasted the rapper in a way that a Republican candidate would, and is believed to have polished his centrist image (and picked up votes).

In the case of Kerry, Malin writes:

I have long assumed that John Kerry is as much of an open-borders advocate as George W. Bush, if not more so. But yesterday, Kerry struck a different note. He told the Spanish-language television outlet Telemundo that he opposes granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. "I think that driver's licenses are part of the legality of being here," he said.

This is the Sister Souljah moment of the 2004 presidential campaign. In fact, it's even better than a Sister Souljah moment. When Bill Clinton distanced himself from Sister Souljah, he was merely taking the same (presumed) position as his opponent, then-president George H.W. Bush. (Bush hadn't commented on Sister Souljah, but everyone knew he was no more a fan than Clinton.)

In this case, Kerry simultaneously proves his willingness to stand up to an important far-left ethnic constituency, as Clinton did, and highlights an important Bush vulnerability. (Bush's brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, strongly supports giving drivers' licenses to illegal aliens--the same position that helped get Gray Davis ousted from the California governorship last fall.)

She also urges Kerry not to back off from this stance as well as noting:

(1)California is really not competitive. Every four years Republicans say they think they have a chance in CA, and they usually don't (definitely seems like wasted $$$ to us)

(2)She's quite certain now that Kerry wouldn't stick to this position once he gets in -- but the point, she notes, is what Kerry is doing now and what it does to the political mix in the election campaign.