Howard Dean ran on it. Al Gore reveled in it. Joe Biden hammered it. Al Sharpton screamed it. Springsteen opined it. Jon Stewart skewered it. Paul Krugman wrote it. Josh Marshall blogged it. Michael Moore filmed it. And every thinking person in America knew it.
Now, at last, John Kerry has said it:
“In Iraq, this administration has consistently over-promised and under-performed. This policy has been plagued by a lack of planning, an absence of candor, arrogance and outright incompetence. And the President has held no one accountable, including himself.”
In a powerful speech delivered yesterday, Kerry shot the white elephant in the corner of the room and proceeded to beat Bush with its tusks.
He called the president’s admission of “miscalculations” in Iraq “one of the greatest understatements in recent American history,” blasting the errors themselves as “colossal failures of judgment.” He pointed to the rising death toll, growing costs, and diminished security, in Iraq and in America. The President, he said, has “misled, miscalculated, and mismanaged” every aspect of the operation.
Understandably, Democrats are ecstatic. The Times’ lead editorial proclaims that Kerry has “finally found his voice,” and TNR’s Noam Sheiber calls the speech “easily the best thing to come out of his mouth during the campaign.”
But the speech was not just a political score. It ripped the sheet off the most important issue facing the country, and even otherwise critical conservatives acknowledge the impact of the position.
“This country has long needed to have a straight up-or-down debate on the war,” writes David Brooks in today’s New York Times. “Now that Kerry has positioned himself as the antiwar candidate, it can.”
Rich Lowry at the National Review agrees: “The election will turn on exactly what it should, and be won or lost on the most important issue facing the country.”
And Rick Brookhiser, blogging at The Corner, concedes the outlines of the new debate. “Bush will have to explain why Iraq was right, why it is better to have Saddam gone, and how we are going to prevail there; and how we intend to prevail over all. He will have to say it in big speeches, and he will have to say it in sound bites. It won't be Lincoln Douglas or the Federalist Papers, but it will be as close as we come.”
It’s taken a long time, but Kerry has finally staked out the right position. Now let the real campaign begin.
Posted by Mr. Miara at September 21, 2004 02:24 PM