RogerRabbit
Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 05 Sep 2004
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Location: Oregon
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 Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:06 pm Post subject: Kerry's own party throws him |
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James P. Pinkerton
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vppin303989172sep30,0,687511.column?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines
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The Democrats' conflicting positions on the Iraq war complicate his balancing act
As usual, Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" offered the most cutting commentary on the two presidential candidates as they prepared for their first debate. On Tuesday night, Stewart mocked John Kerry for having "many positions" on the Iraq war. By contrast, George W. Bush, he continued, has "just one position-and it's wrong."
A newly released Washington Post/ABC poll further illustrates the tricky Iraq-War politics. By a ratio of 51-46, Americans say the war was "not worth fighting." Yet the same poll shows a near-mirror result in the presidential head-to-head: Bush leads Kerry 51-45. In other words, a majority of Americans think that the Iraq war-the signature issue of the Bush presidency-was a bad idea, and yet a majority of them want the Bush presidency to continue.
That says something about Kerry.
So what gives? One answer, of course, is that Iraq is not the only issue. For example, Bush wins big on the question of overall leadership in the "war on terror," 54-37.
No doubt both campaigns are studying these poll data, crafting arguments and one-liners for their candidates to use tonight.
But if Iraq is the biggest single issue, then Kerry has by far the harder task. And that's because the same question that has bedeviled Kerry for two years haunts him still: What's his position on Iraq? And while it's true that Kerry himself is a natural bloviator who would never say in 10 crisp words what he could say in a soggy 100, there's a logic to his wind-sockery on the Iraq question. That is, he has three different constituencies in the Democratic Party that he needs to please, and the best way to please them, he figures, is to unspool yards of yarn every time he talks about Iraq.
The first group within his coalition are the outright hawks, such as Sen. Joe Lieberman. By now, the Connecticut Democrat is mostly a closet Republican, but because of his national standing, any criticism he might utter of Kerry would be wounding indeed. And so Kerry must keep him and like-minded Democratic neoconservatives on the reservation.
The second group in the Kerry Kamp are the doves, who include such prominent figures as Sen. Teddy Kennedy and former Vice President Al Gore. These folks, who see Iraq as another Vietnam, represent the base of the Democratic Party.
The third group are those in between, who support the war but insist at the same time that Bush has mishandled it. This group includes Sen. Joe Biden and most senior Democrats in Congress, as well as, oftentimes, Kerry himself. Many in this group express deep doubts about Iraq - but only privately.
So these are the three stools that Kerry has had to stand on-they're more like rocking chairs, actually- throughout his presidential campaign. No wonder he looks weak: He must constantly bob and weave to keep his balance atop three shifting supports.
A good illustration of Kerry's dilemma came last week, when the Massachusetts senator started ripping into the Iraq war. But after Republicans criticized him for undermining Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi, Kerry retreated back into policy porridge. On Sunday, Biden rushed to the cameras to "guarantee" that Kerry supports Allawi just as much as Bush does.
If so, then Kerry's occasional claim that Iraq was "the wrong war at the wrong time" is just so much hot air, because the Democrat has just endorsed Bush's preferred outcome in the Iraq war, which is keeping Allawi in charge. And tonight, Bush might tweak Kerry yet further by asking his challenger to name the additional countries that would help in Iraq at President Kerry's request.
If Kerry looks weak tonight, it's because he's no stronger than his rickety coalition. So even if he does, perchance, say anything strong about Iraq, most likely he'll change his mind in a day or two. By contrast, Bush has his one position, and he's sticking to it, come hell or high blood. |
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