President Bush's Veterans Day broadside against Senator John F. Kerry, delivered in a major speech on the war in Iraq, was greeted with quiet cheer by those in the senator's camp who are laying the groundwork for his possible run for the presidency in 2008.

By singling out Kerry as the Democrats' leading Iraq war critic, aides to the Massachusetts Democrat said, the president confirmed Kerry's continuing prominence in national politics, something the senator and his aides have fought hard to maintain.

''Kerry is clearly one of the national leaders of the Democratic Party," said Jenny Backus, a Kerry political strategist. ''John Kerry has articulated a clear strategy for Democrats, and there's nothing more dangerous for Republicans than a united Democratic Party."

True, there's nothing more dangerous to Republicans thana united Democratic Party. Kerry isn't the one to do the uniting or lead a unified caucus. As nice as Kerry's conversion to the "let's get out of Iraq" camp might be, Kerry had his opportunity to lead on the war just a year ago and failed miserably.

Remember this from August 10, 2004?

On Friday, Bush challenged Kerry to answer whether he would support the war "knowing what we know now" about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction that U.S. and British officials were certain were there.

In response, Kerry said: "Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it was the right authority for a president to have."

from daily kos

It sure was sweet for Bush to throw Kerry a bone like that... must be a kind of belated thank you for the way Kerry ran his campaign.

# posted by Jon Easton : 12:01 PM  1 comments