The hawkish case for Kerry

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Michael Totten is one of my daily blog visits. I find him interesting because he is a swing voter. Coming from neither particular side gives him insights that partisans simply don't have, because they often have blinders on.

Today he makes The hawkish case for Kerry in Tech Central Station. (Tomorrow he makes the liberal case for Bush.)

Whether Bush lied about Saddam's weapons or not (and I don't think he did) he does not have the political capital to make a similar case against another regime in the future. If US intelligence shows the mullahs in Iran are nearly finished with nuclear weapons, you can bet your bottom dollar the Bush Administration will lay groundwork for pre-emption. And if Bush goes to Congress to ask for permission, or to the UN and NATO to ask for help, people will laugh. And it will be devastating.

John Kerry is not interested in pre-emption now. But he is not in office. He is not responsible for the defense of the country today. He does not receive the same intelligence briefings as Bush, nor does he have advisors who suggest actual courses of action. He has campaign advisors, and they are completely different animals.

Democrats will justifiably scoff if Bush wants to wage another pre-emptive war. But they won't scoff if John Kerry does. They will sit up and take notice, and so will some people in Europe. Kerry can change the minds of skeptics. Bush can't.