I’d like to get readers’ reactions to Kerry’s Iraq speech —particularly on the question of the country’s antiwar sentiment. (You can email this column now, at will: DreyfussReport@tompaine.com ) I’m encouraged by MTV polls that show young people registering and planning to vote, since they seem to be generally opposed to the war. But the question is: Are Americans in the heartland—in swing states like Missouri and Ohio and Florida—s ticking with Bush over this bungled war?
Today’s Wall Street Journal seems smug over John Kerry’s decision to go at Bush over Iraq. “The Senator,” editorializes the Journal, “finally did offer an internally coherent alternative to the Bush foreign policy of the past four years.” It provides a fair summary of Kerry’s remarks from Monday. And the Journal makes clear that it believes that American votes will ultimately side the pro-war, not the anti-war candidate:
If nothing else, John Kerry’s apparent decision to close out the 2004 presidential campaign as the “anti-war” candidate would seem to be true to himself and to the party he now leads… He’s now staking his bid for the White House as a critic of the boldest and most divisive American foreign policy initiative since [Vietnam].
I agree. But is the Journal right that being antiwar is a losing proposition? It’s taken him a while, but Kerry has now drawn the line in the sand. Leaving aside the possibility that he will flip-flop and cross that line himself (again), it’s now time for an all-out assault on Bush’s war policy. Kerry needs to keep hammering on this theme, and introduce related sub-themes: Abu Ghraib, for instance.
The BBC reports that Kerry rejected Clinton’s advice in going after Iraq:
He has also rejected the advice of former President Bill Clinton that he should switch the main campaign theme to domestic issues.
Certainly Bush will use Kerry’s earlier flip-flops on Iraq against him, but Kerry has to stick to his guns now. Mario Cuomo agrees. "Great! Excellent! Masterful!" said Cuomo of Kerry’s speech. "He's never been clearer. He's turning this thing around. Now what he needs to do is be specific, hard, truthful, do more of the same.”
Let’s leave the last bungled war alone, John, and keep focusing on this one.
