Kerry on Iraq (Sept): "It's gut-check time, folks...This is a f---ing war"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

In the beginning of the last week of September, Kerry went on the offensive about Iraq. The war was getting much worse again. There had been a lull (in the fighting but especially in the news coverage) after the United States had handed over authority to an interim Iraqi government on June 30. But in July, August and September, casualties steadily climbed, and the fighting bled back onto the front pages. Former Clinton pollster Stan Greenberg had been pressing Kerry to tie the war to domestic needs—to declare that $200 billion spent on Iraq meant that much less funding for education and health care at home. Kerry used the line in a few speeches, but reluctantly. He didn't really believe it. In truth, he was willing to spend whatever it took to win in Iraq, or at least to extricate the United States with some semblance of honor.

Still, he was appalled by the carnage in Iraq and the waste of the war. On Sunday night, Sept. 19, the campaign staff met to discuss, one more time, the candidate's position on Iraq. The Clintonistas pushed a harder line against the war. But the campaign's old guard wasn't so sure. Couldn't Kerry play it both ways? Shrum cautioned against appearing too dovish. Kerry seemed to let the debate go on, circling around and around.

But then he spoke. "It's gut-check time, folks," he said. "This is not about whether it's politically expedient. This is a f---ing war. Kids are dying out there, and this president continues not to tell the truth. You'd have to be out of your mind to go in there the way he did. There was no WMD, no imminent threat, no ties to Al Qaeda. The answer is no. Anything else is crap."

Kerry had decided to be the antiwar candidate. Not for the first time, to be sure. He had called himself an antiwar candidate when he was trying to peel off the Dean vote in January. But he spoke without any equivocation this time. The next day he gave a blistering speech at NYU, attacking Bush for the folly of invading Iraq. The Bush campaign had some fun with an ad showing Kerry tacking back and forth on his windsurfer. But to campaign staffers desperate for some sign that Kerry was turning a corner—that the famous fourth-quarter player had finally taken the field—he sounded convincing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6421300/site/newsweek/

[Pig_Latin_Lover]

1. Well, at least Bush knows where he stands

He's going to continue ruining America and feeding our troops to the Iraqis.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. The answer is no. Anything else is crap."

in order to secure the future of our economy. Anyone who tells you any different has his/her head up his/her ass.

[liberalpragmatist]

3. This article makes me furious at Bob Shrum

I'm willing to take the Newsweek piece with a grain of salt, but if it's true, then I am SO glad that Bob Shrum will run another presidential campaign ever again.

Virtually every bad decision can be traced back to him.

And on Iraq too - Kerry clearly was itching to speak out on Iraq far sooner, he was clearly anguished, and it showed. Kerry doesn't look convincing when he's not saying what he believes.

And even in September, when Kerry had had enough politicking over the war, Shrum STILL told him not to appear to "dovish" and "play it safe"!

Had Kerry come out more strongly against the war earlier, perhaps right before his convention, I think he may have peeled off enough voters to win the election.