At least according to
this story in the NY Times, citing an Annenberg poll. The story also says that since both sides are growing confident in being able to bring out their respective bases, both are increasingly seeing swing voters as critical.
This should be food for thought for those Democrats who say that Kerry cannot afford to be too anti-war. What Kerry -- and the country -- cannot afford is his being unduly supportive of Bush's illegal war. Democrats aren't stuck with this unwinnable war yet. Let's hope that Kerry doesn't make us stuck with it.
At the recent "Democratic unity dinner", Clinton did a very good job of explaining why Kerry's vote on the Iraq resolution was not a vote for war: for war to be authorized, the resolution required some conditions to be met, which the Bush junta just shrugged off. Kerry should study what Clinton said, and start making the same points: as a matter of fact, he never voted for this war, the way Bush has fought it.
At the Dem unity dinner, Clinton said:
So they're running this big ad how Senator Kerry didn't vote for the appropriations of Iraq. Go look at the vote. Was there ever a doubt it was gonna pass? No. What John Kerry wanted to say is Mr. President, I voted to give you the authority and you promised me you'd let the UN do their job, and you didn't let the UN do their job, you cut them off and this is my protest. I want people to know that. That doesn't have anything to do with not taking care of the troops. (
Clinton speaks)
In his book Worse than Watergate, John Dean explains how Bush double-crossed Congress on their resolution authorizing the use of force on Iraq:
In launching his war on Iraq, Bush committed a criminal offense by violating the very authorization he sought from Congress. His calculated manipulation of Congress, which included numerous unfounded intelligence claims, and his formal determination of war failed to comply with the requirements of the Iraq war resolution.
Kerry should explain this to the American public. Such an explanation would completely undo the baggage he carries from his voting for the war resolution. Why, when dealing with the Bush junta, is Kerry unable to call a spade a spade? He did it once with that scripted "spontaneous" remark about "the worst lying bunch... I've never seen", but he's never come back to that theme.