I frankly don't have a strong opinion on Kerry yet.  I haven't really dug into his policy proposals and really couldn't care less about whether he was a real war hero, or what he may have done with an intern, etc.   Between work and being down w/ a flu for several weeks, I just haven't had a chance to really understand him.

Regular blog readers know that I'm quite displeased with Bush to the point of considering willfully gaming (as in John Nash) my vote to create a deadlock between the President and the GOP Congress.   The game so to speak would be voting against my true desires (what libertarian wing of the Republican party says it will give me) in order to secure 50% of what I really want (avoiding what the Republican party has actually given me).

My single biggest concern, however, is that I fundamentally believe we're on the right track with our policy towards the Middle East.   Sure there are some small tactical course changes / nit picks that might be worth implementing but at the end of the day, we're in a War and we're winning it.   Wars are messy with a million and one things that could have been better implemented and are criticizable after the fact but, as we often say, the standard isn't perfection, it's the alternative.   And we're in pretty darn good shape given how the world looked on Sept 12, 2001.   We've come a long way, baby.

What I definitely do NOT want is a foreign policy that predicates execution on the UN, France, Germany, the Arab League, the PTA, the SPCA, whatever approval.   Aggressive, physical engagement is occasionally called for and we can't be afraid to, well, engage.

Now if, however, Kerry comes out and says the following - as Thomas Friedman prescribes - it would clear the first hurdle in me voting for him without feeling like I've sold my soul to cynicism:

"I first want to direct a message to the die-hard Baathists and Islamo-fascists who've been slaughtering Iraqis struggling to build their first democratic government. And my message to these terrorists is this: 'READ MY LIPS -- if I am president, I will not cut and run. I will not pull our troops out in the face of your intimidation the way Ronald Reagan fled from Lebanon.' Because that panicky retreat from Beirut in 1984 started us down this whole path, where terrorists believed if they hit us hard enough, we would run and they would get away with it. I hate how George Bush has prosecuted this war. I know I could do better. But I want every suicide bomber -- from Bali to Baghdad -- to understand one thing about a Kerry administration: 'You can blow yourselves up from now until next Ramadan, but we'll still be in Iraq. You'll be dead, but we'll still be there. Which part of that sentence don't you understand?'

...a Kerry presidency will pay any price and bear any burden to try to build a decent Iraqi regime in the heart of the Arab world. My making that commitment now is the best way to prove to the terrorists that their actions are futile, and in that way save American and Iraqi lives. Failure to make that commitment would have horrific consequences for U.S. foreign policy.

Of course, he can't just say it, he's gotta mean it.   And follow through on it.   Alas, from what little I've read about Kerry - and I'm far from making a conclusion on this point - he appears to have a rather large statement ambiguity quotient and appears to fall quite prey to the whims of political expediency.