Reply #47: That's what I remember too

[karynnj]

I think that Kerry did the right thing in September when he stopped speaking of the vote, and switched to speaking about the decision to go to war. It might have helped had he done that that earlier - especially as he had spoken against rushing to war when it was not a last resort.

I doubt that JRE's or the DLC or Shrum or anyone else had much impact on him not admitting it was a mistake or , as he has said, the wrong thing to do. Kerry in 2004 spoke of the war as not a war of last resort, which in his speech on religion in 2006 means he thinks it was an unjust war. Accepting that by trusting Bush, he essentially allowed Bush to have his vote when he later went to war was clearly a tough issue for a man whose entire adult life fought that kind of immoral war. Whenever he speaks of that vote, there is pain in his face that I don't see in many of the others. I doubt he could have emotionally dealt with rejecting the reasons (excuses) he gave for the vote while running a Presidential race.

Switching the question to the decision to go to war or not - where he was publicly on record on the don't go side - made sense.