Not to mention a fair critique: Bush’s Mocking Drowns Out Kerry’s Explanation of Iraq Vote
For five days now, as the long-distance arguments between President Bush and Senator John Kerry have focused on the wisdom of invading Iraq, Mr. Kerry has struggled to convince his audiences that his vote to authorize the president to use military force was a far, far cry from voting for a declaration of war.So far, his aides and advisers concede, he has failed to get his message across, as Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have mocked his efforts as “a new nuance” that amount to more examples of the senator’s waffling.
Mr. Kerry’s problems began last week when President Bush challenged him for a yes-or-no answer on a critical campaign issue: If Mr. Kerry knew more than a year ago what he knows today about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, would he still have voted to authorize the use of military force to oust Saddam Hussein?
As Mr. Bush surely knew, it is a question that can upset the difficult balance Mr. Kerry must strike. He has to portray himself as tough and competent enough to be commander in chief, yet appeal to the faction of Democrats that hates the war and eggs him on to call Mr. Bush a liar.
Indeed, to call it “mocking” is to reduce a serious policy debate (perhaps the deabte of the campaign) to what sounds like a petty tit-for-tat contest. If Mr. Kerry cannot find a way to a) articulate a coherent Iraq policy and b) find a way to reconcile his voting record he is going to have a hard time winning.
Indeed, from from “drowning out” Mr. Kerry’s response, Mr. Bush’s response is accentuating it.
Update: Robert Tagorda, James Joyner and Pejman Yousefzadeh all comment on this issue as well.
Joyner rightly notes:
Kerry is a thoughtful guy, but perhaps too much so. A leader can’t second guess himself with every minor setback. Perhaps Bush is a bit too steadfast, stubbornly holding onto positions well after the facts show a policy to be failing. Neither extreme is ideal. If forced to pick between the two, I’d rather have the guy who’s a bit too cocky than one who can’t make a decision.
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NYT - Bush’s Mocking Drowns Out Kerry’s Explanation of Iraq Vote [RSS]
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