While you're at it...

Read Joseph Duemer's most excellent post on Kerry's speech, Vietnam, and complexity.

I suppose it would have been foolish to stand before the nation & assert that to combat terrorism we must bring a combination of police powers & positive cultural / economic initiatives to bear as we quietly abandon the rhetoric of war.

I suppose such a statement would have been tantamount to Walter Mondale’s admission that he, like his opponent, would raise taxes, but that at least he, Mondale, wouldn’t lie about it. The truth is often not politic—a fact that defines the immaturity of our democracy.