John F. Kerry is no JFK

Insightful excerpt (here) from a Newsweek article on Sen. John Kerry's freudian slip of last week:

In other words, Kerry has some repair work to do. Even before last week, he recognized he needed to get Democrats to trust him, and believe in him, a second time around. On a recent Saturday in Lewiston, Maine, Kerry mused about the problem over lunch at an Italian restaurant. “They’ll just have to make a measurement of whether or not they think any of the other people who think they’re running would have done better against George Bush,” he told NEWSWEEK as he worked his way through a plate of spaghetti. “I mean, that’s an initial threshold question people ought to ask themselves. Would anybody else have beaten a wartime president—this wartime president—under those circumstances?” As he spoke, Kerry absentmindedly jabbed at his meatballs with a fork.

“Is America a country where you can learn from something or isn’t it?” he asked. “Why did Ronald Reagan get to run four times for the nomination? Why is John McCain running for the second time? Didn’t he get his ass kicked around South Carolina by George Bush for not being patriotic enough?

Kerry put down his fork. His meatballs lay in ruins. “I always thought that in America you do get a second chance,” he said. It’s the third chances that are harder to come by.

Can you say, "handwringer"? "Weenie"? And am I misinterpreting what seems to be a left-handed compliment to Bush (and to the legitimacy of the GWOT)? (bolded text)