Quick thoughts on Kerry's child care proposal: if you put aside the reliance on the phrase "at-home mom" in his press release, it sounds like a great idea. (His campaign never got back to me on whether at-home dads would be shut out. I'm operating on the optimistic assumption that the staffer who wrote the release was too narrow-minded to consider dads might possibility be at-home parents, not that dads would actually be barred from getting the benefit).

In some ways, Kerry's proposal is slick: he bumps up the tax credit available for childcare, throws a bone to at-home parents and sticks in an everyone's-gotta-love-it plank on afterschool programs. What's not to like? Even the Bush folks have chosen to attack the proposal on economic grounds (where will the money come from, they ask), rather than suggesting more money for child care is a bad idea on its face.

This is campaign season, and nothing anyone says can be taken seriously, but if child care does becomes a front -- even a small one -- in this election, kids will probably benefit ...