Reply #7: I believe he did the politics as usual thing

[GCP]

He knew he'd be running for president in 2004 and would need a good turn-out from the red states to turn around and vote for him against Chimp. This was before the war started and became the mess it now is, and he probably thought it would be fast and easy and the Iraqis would greet us with open arms, yada yada yada.

If he'd voted against what they all expected it to be, then all Chimp would have had to do in the race would be to make him out to be Un-American and doubting of our plans and military.

Unfortunately, life is what happens when we're making other plans.

Things went badly wrong, the war is a huge mess and Dean and Kucinich come across as visionaries who had the real chops in a time of crisis.

If Kerry had only listened to people like Scott Ritter, he'd have known there were no WDMs, and he'd have known it was a sham.

But even then, if the war had been a success, he'd still be fucked if he'd voted against it, in the eyes of the great unwashed in the red states.

Just my $0.02.