Posted on 04/21/2004 9:34:42 PM PDT by Utah Girl
"WE NEED A reasonable plan and a specific timetable for self-government" in Iraq, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said in December. "That means completing the tasks of security and democracy in the country -- not cutting and running in order to claim a false success." On another occasion, he said: "It would be a disaster and a disgraceful betrayal of principle to speed up the process simply to lay the groundwork for a politically expedient withdrawal of American troops."
Contrast that with what Mr. Kerry told reporters last week: "With respect to getting our troops out, the measure is the stability of Iraq. [Democracy] shouldn't be the measure of when you leave. I have always said from day one that the goal here . . . is a stable Iraq, not whether or not that's a full democracy."
Mr. Kerry contends that he has not shifted his public position. But there are major differences between what he said in December -- right after Saddam Hussein's capture, when Mr. Kerry was seeking to discredit dovish Democratic challenger Howard Dean -- and his remarks last week, which followed several weeks of bad news from Iraq and growing public disenchantment with the course of the war. Where once he named democracy as a task to be completed, and the alternative to "cutting and running" or a "false success," Mr. Kerry now says democracy is optional. Where once he warned against setting the conditions for an early but irresponsible withdrawal of U.S. forces, now he does so himself by defining the exit standard as "stability," a term that could describe Saudi Arabia or Iran -- or the Iraq of Saddam Hussein.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Judging from Kerry's past, I doubt he will offer any clear alternative to anything GWB has done, or is doing. Mainly because all he has ever done is do his best to figure out the most nuanced speech to give on the Senate floor before he cast a vote he can flip flop on later by referencing his speech on the Senate floor.
John Kerry's problem now is that he no longer has the luxury of cherry picking a paragraph from his Speeches on the Floor to justify hie flip flops, because he isn't just 1 of 100 Senators blathering on the Floor, he is it, and it's clear he isn't prepared for prime time. John Kerry has always chose the path of least resistance and did so carefully enough to excuse his chosen path with double speak.
IMHO, John Kerry is gonna get a rude awakening this November. He's gonna find out that leadership is more than just a claim made in a speech, it's what your made of, and John Kerry just doesn't have it
I was hoping this wouldn't happen before September.
That's when people start paying attention.
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