Josh Marshall: Kerry isn't waffling on Iraq

[ModerateMiddle]

http://www.thehill.com/marshall/090303.aspx

snip

The key dig against Kerry is that he waffled on Iraq. His critics say that he voted for the war resolution when President Bush and the war were popular but as the president’s popularity declined and the facts piled up about deceptions, poor planning and incompetence, Kerry shifted toward mounting criticism.

But some issues are complex enough that nuanced, even ambivalent, positions should not be a liability.

Nor should a willingness to change them in the face of shifting circumstances.

I’m not here to defend John Kerry. Politics certainly played into his decision-making, and I’ll leave it to the ugly, rough-and-tumble press to decide how much it did.

But what to do about Iraq was always an issue that required a careful weighing of one priority against another, and that’s not something we’ve seen much of from Kerry’s opponents, who appear on the surface to have positions both clearer and more consistent than his.

snip

[madaboutharry]

1. Kerry

Kerry needs to come out and call Bush the L word, as in liar.

[antineocon1]

2. Excellent article...

I am voting for Kerry in the primaries. He has shown himself to be extremely intelligent and a succesful politician. I want a president who is diplomatic. Kerry knows how to speak the international language of politics. I want someone who is calm and thinks before he speaks.