Faith vs. Reason

By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek

Kerry needs to win over swing voters. But getting inside their heads may be as much a job for a therapist as a campaign consultantWEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY

Aug. 13 - John Kerry disappointed a lot of Democrats when he said that he would have voted for the resolution that gave George W. Bush the authority to invade Iraq even had Kerry known then what he knows now—that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and no ties to Al Qaeda. What then would be the grounds for war? That Saddam Hussein was a despicable human being?

Kerry tried to explain. He stood by his vote, but he would have handled the warmaking authority differently. Bush, on a five-state campaign swing, taunted Kerry for “finally clearing that up.”

It was classic Kerry, full of subtleties that get lost in translation. Kerry’s position is actually quite responsible, but he’s getting no help from the national press corps in conveying it to the voters. In October 2002, when Bush asked Congress to give him war powers, the administration was in the midst of a diplomatic negotiation with Saddam. The threat of force passed by Congress pushed Saddam into allowing the weapons inspectors back into Iraq. Denying Bush the authority would have emasculated American diplomacy.