Going Left

John Kerry's has definitely (at least for the time being) chosen his position on Iraq. Its hard to tell if this is his real position, or just more political angling. Clearly by going anti-war, he has decided to appeal to the left-wing of his base in the Democratic Party. Dick Morris sees a huge problem in this approach.

Liberals will cheer Kerry's new-found decisiveness, but it opens the way for Bush to deal him a counterstroke that can all but end this election and finish off Kerry for good.

Kerry's right flank is now gapingly vulnerable to a Bush attack. According to Scott Rasmussen's tracking polls, 30 to 40 percent of Kerry's voters disagree with his new leftward tilt on Iraq.

That is, even as the Democrat condemned the war in Iraq as a "diversion" from the central mission of the war on terror, a large minority of his own voters disagrees and sees it as "integral" to the battle to respond to 9/11.

Kerry has moved to the left, leaving about one-third of his vote behind. Bush can now move in and peel off Kerry's moderate supporters.

The key for Bush, going forward, is to make sure that people continue to see Iraq as part of the War on Terror. Kerry has staked his whole candidacy on people divorcing these two issues, having in effect conceded the issue of the economy to Bush.