John Kerry, a fairly staunch opponent of capital punishment, reiterates his stand today: Only for terrorists. While we'd prefer the death penalty be abolished and a moratorium put in place until then, Kerry is light years ahead of Bush on this issue.

Of course, most executions are done by the states, not the feds, so many will say his stand isn't likely to have a huge impact. Still, it's important to us that the leader of the free world oppose the death penalty, and we think it will be a position that foreign governments, most of whom have abolished the death penalty, will champion.

Kerry has some more good news this week in the polling department:

Kerry's momentum toward the Democratic nomination, meanwhile, has fueled increased belief among Democratic voters in Illinois that he can defeat Bush in November, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.

The poll, conducted March 3-6 among 602 likely Democratic primary voters, found that 76 percent believe Kerry has a good-to-excellent chance of beating Bush in the general election, up 5 percentage points from a similar poll three weeks ago