Separate but Equine

More conciliatory approach: Sen. Kerry once personally killed a communist.

Unfair, incendiary stereotype No. 4: Bush permits his agents to attack his opponent's military record, indicating gall in concentrations usually found only inside the human liver.

More conciliatory approach: President Bush jogs regularly.

Unfair, incendiary stereotype No. 5: Kerry is politically to the left of Trotsky, and is unlikely to change unless it might help him politically, in which case he will happily move to the right of Genghis Khan. (See stereotype No. 1.)

More conciliatory approach: Sen. Kerry is tall.

Unfair, incendiary stereotype No. 6: Bush's very public trumpeting of his religious convictions is at best an exercise in shameless sanctimony and at worst an indication of a self-righteous, Cotton Mather-like absolutist theology -- a puritanical, good-versus-evil, I-know-what-God-wants certitude that is in some ways no different from those of his radical Islamic adversaries, a collision of unyielding spiritual philosophies with terrifying, apocalyptic implications for the entire globe.

More conciliatory approach: President Bush likes dogs.

Incendiary stereotype No. 7: This is the worst presidential choice the American electorate has ever faced.

More conciliatory approach: It looks like it's going to be an excellent baseball season.

Gene Weingarten's e-mail address is weingarten@washpost.com. Chat with him online Tuesdays at noon at www.washingtonpost.com.