John Kerry's Iowa victory strengthens Bush's hand against terrorist adversaries.

Jan. 20, 2004: PoliSat .Com's Political Satire/ Commentary Daily Update # 01·· ™©·2004··
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John Kerry's Iowa victory strengthens Bush's hand against terrorist adversaries.·

Although yesterday's victories by Kerry and Edwards in Iowa are bad news for Howard Dean and "bad" news for Bush in that Kerry would pose a formidable adversary in Election 2004, they were good news for the country. Why? Because even though both Kerry and Edwards tried to distance themselves from their votes supporting the resolution for Operation Iraqi Freedom, neither conveyed his post-vote "reservations" in a manner that would boost the morale of our adversaries.

The Venting of Spleen in the Johns.·

The Iowa victories gleaned
by Senators "John" against Dean
are lessons on patience
'til activist patients
abandoned the Doctor of Spleen.

It's doubtful that Dean and his throng
perceive it was they who were wrong--
Prescriptions of Dean
for venting of spleen
sent Iowa folks to the "Johns."

Part of what propelled Kerry so dramatically to the top was that the Dean campaign gave Kerry ample opportunities to rebuke the ideological blindness of Dean and his supporters. (Dean's statements that Saddam Hussein's capture makes us no safer and that Usama bin Laden is entitled to a presumption of innocence despite his having bragged about being the author of the 9-11 attack best exemplify such ideological blindness.) Opportunities for Kerry to rebuke Dean for such statements not only drew attention to Dean's ideological unsuitability for the Presidency but also gave Kerry the opportunity to re-establish himself as a reluctant warrior, but a warrior nonetheless. Dean's unequivocal assertions that he would not have initiated Operation Iraqi Freedom without the express approval of the U.N. gave Kerry an opportunity to further establish himself as the Un-Dean by stating that no one should be President who would give France a veto over America's national security. Dean's effort to draw distinctions between such unequivocal position regarding Iraq and his mid-1990's letter to Clinton urging "unilateral" military intervention by the U.S. in Kosovo constituted the kind of pathetic offense to common sense that so vividly characterizes the blindness of ideological arrogance.

Why is Kerry's "comeback" good for the country? Because adversaries surely must recognize that Kerry's criticisms of Bush's foreign policy are driven more by a political need to draw differences between Kerry and Bush than by any fundamental lack of will on the part of Kerry to take decisive action against them if he were to become President. Surely no adversary could realistically expect a man who braved enemy fire while wounded to save a colleague would, as President, be reluctant to use military force to counter a gathering threat (rather than waiting until it were to become "imminent" as Kerry's campaign implies in an effort to distinguish himself from Bush). Thus, it helps Bush by strengthening his hand in Iraq and the war on terror in general.

It's true that a third of the Iowa caucusers preferred the sunny-side-up Edwards over Kerry, but such preference more likely reflects disdain for, or exhaustion from, vitriolic politics than a greater confidence in Edwards on issues of war and peace than Kerry (or Bush). Edwards deserves credit, however, for limiting his negativity to the standard, off-the-shelf, class-warfare arguments which have thus far proved so ineffective for the Democrats since Bush became President. If those hackneyed arguments prove to be the best Edwards (or Kerry) can offer, then their campaigns would bode well for Bush. Meanwhile, the Iowa successes of two senators who voted for Operation Iraqi Freedom bode well for America.

Some pundits equivocate about whether Dean's campaign is inexorably headed toward self-destruction. Perhaps they're right, but for the current, downward trajectory of Dean's campaign to change would require something not likely to occur-- i.e., for Howard Dean to actually become someone other than Howard Dean.

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