It doesn’t even matter if he had nobler intentions because it makes it either a) seem reasonable that the President was wrong or b) seem like Kerry is a major dolt for giving authority to someone in whom he lacked confidence.

Kerry’s been doing a good job over the last couple weeks of chipping away at the misconception that the only decisions that matter in the Iraq debacle were the ones to authorize force and funding. IT’s not about confidence, but being mislead in the run-up to the war. Here’s the relevant part of Kerry’s speech :

Two years ago, Congress was right to give the President the authority to use force to hold Saddam Hussein accountable. This President? any President? would have needed the threat of force to act effectively. This President misused that authority.

The power entrusted to the President gave him a strong hand to play in the international community. The idea was simple. We would get the weapons inspectors back in to verify whether or not Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. And we would convince the world to speak with one voice to Saddam: disarm or be disarmed.

A month before the war, President Bush told the nation: ?If we have to act, we will take every precaution that is possible. We will plan carefully. We will act with the full power of the United States military. We will act with allies at our side and we will prevail.? He said that military action wasn?t ?unavoidable.?

Instead, the President rushed to war without letting the weapons inspectors finish their work. He went without a broad and deep coalition of allies. He acted without making sure our troops had enough body armor. And he plunged ahead without understanding or preparing for the consequences of the post-war. None of which I would have done.

The fact is, Bush treated the inspections, U.N. resolutions, Congressional approval, and post-war planning as mere formalities that stood between him and his ultimate goal of invading Iraq.

It would be one thing if he was willing to say in public what he said privately (“Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out!”), but he was careful to insist that war wasn’t inevitable, he’d allow the inspectors to finish their work, etc. Once all the roadblocks were out of the way, he gave Saddam a 48-hour deadline and then started the attack. His lust for an invasion was pretty obvious when he reportedly pumped his fist upon hearing the news about the initial bombing.

Bush was dishonest about his intentions and it’s pretty obvious to anyone with a semi-long term memory. Kerry’s justified in going on the attack and if he keeps it up, there’s no way Bush will have an advantage over him on this issue.

In fact, it occured to me that the entire Bush/Cheney campaign resembles a Stuart Smalley session – endless attempting to seem upbeat, constantly in denial, closing out all negative voices. I imagine Bush sitting in front of a mirror saying, “Gosh darnit, people like me!” It’s that false optimism of someone deeply in denial, fighting inner demons and fear of failure.