John Kerry flopping around like a fish out of water

It is difficult to determine exactly what John Kerry is trying to accomplish these days when it comes to Iraq. The nature and timing of his statements and actions leave little doubt about his attempt to politicize the withdrawal from Iraq. There are several motives that may be driving him. The most obvious is the upcoming '08 presidential election. He may be posturing to be the strongest anti-Iraq candidate. This is especially true since Hillary Clinton is staking her chances as a supporter of the war (while trying to appear a Bush critic to certain audiences). The obvious problem for Kerry is that the Iraq is trending positive with the transfer of responsibility to the Iraqis growing significantly. Sorry, but say what you want about Hillary, she will benefit from her Iraq support. She will have to throw some people under the bus to capitalize on it, but that has never stopped her. I digress.

The second possible motive is simply a futile quest for relevance. Since losing his bid for president, Kerry has tried one thing after another to keep himself politically alive on the national level. Unfortunately for the most part it has been one embarrassment after another. So he demands a withdrawal, apologizes for his authorization vote (right after Zarqawi is killed), is one of the 3 Senate votes to set a timetable by the end of this year and now he adjusts that timetable to July 2007. Each display does result in national news coverage. I wonder if it is really true that bad press is better than no press?

Then there is a third motive. It is less likely, since Kerry usually only exhibits concern for himself. However, it is the most rational - with more emphasis on "most" than "rational". The Democrats must see the handwriting on the wall for Iraq. As I said before, Iraq is significantly trending positive. As I posted after Zaqawi's death, many raids against Al Quaeda were lead or exclusively run by the Iraqi forces. The training and ramping up of Iraqi troops is clearly in high gear. The thought of patiently waiting until all goals in Iraq are clearly met and only then begin a withdrawal must be quite repulsive to the Democrats. This path would lead to inevitable ticker tape parades as our boys begin to come home. It would lead to quite a number of other ceremonious events with Bush and the Iraqi leaders meeting and showing support for one another. The whole enchilada. So the final push by people like Kerry are to undermine "the enchilada".

First, demands for a timetable conjure up pictures of things going worst than they are. It continues the lie of a quagmire and references to Vietnam. Second, a constant drumbeat in a national forum just might in Kerry's mind cause Bush to pull the trigger prematurely. Even a little bit premature just might mitigate the picture of success. Also, keep in mind that if Bush were to do so the tremendous pressure applied to him will be quickly forgotten by the media. An example of this is Bush '41 and his pledge of "Read my lips, no new taxes". The Democrats applied tremendous pressure to get a reversal of that pledge. They whined about the deficit. They played the MSM like a fiddle (as usual). They made promises to cut the budget with matching cuts to taxes (which they later reniged on). Finally, when Bush '41 was firmly on the figurative "rack" he gave in. The ink was barely dry when the Dems began to capitalize on his broken pledge and break all promises of spending cuts. Bush '43 has exhibited a maddening (to the Dems) firmness of resolve. If only they could break that before '08 it would be the '92 election all over again.

Thirdly, it also is an attempt to set the stage for taking credit when we actually do start to withdrawal. If the actual withdrawal is anywhere near one of the dates that any Dem has demanded, they will beat their chest and cry victory. Of course there have been so many dates that they are sure to hit one. This is the first July 2007 I have seen. Very logical. The progress in Iraq lines up with that. We could have our first ticker tape parade on July 4th. I think Kerry shuddered to think of that and so that is the likely source of naming the month July.

These are my theories of why John Kerry continues to be willing to embarrass himself with these actions and statements. The question is, does he see himself as we see him? Probably not. Most people like that are completely blinded to how they appear. All I know is that every time he opens his mouth I thank God he is not president.