Hillary Clinton has made the same ludicrous claims, as well as insisting President Bush duped her on the WMD intelligence, though she admitted she failed even to read the intelligence reports made available to senators. The upshot is that Kerry, Clinton and many of their colleagues have told us they relied on -- and were outsmarted by -- a president they radically distrust and believe is a moron.
In the debate Senator Edwards made essentially the same point, as he has before. But as a transparently self-serving tactic to win further points with the base, he characterized his participation in the vote as a mistake for which he's sorry. Edwards said, "I was wrong to vote for this war. What I learned in my vote on Iraq was that you cannot give this president the authority and you can't even give him the first step in that authority because he cannot be trusted."
With all due respect, the base's movers and shakers know, even if its hapless foot soldiers do not, that the Democrats, except perhaps Obama and certain second-tier candidates, are lying to them about their original support for the war. Those sins will all be forgiven, though, as long as they toe the line today.
That's where it gets dicey. The base was counting on the newly elected Democratic congress to deliver on its promise to withdraw our troops from Iraq almost immediately.
But alas, not only have congressional Democrats been frustrated here. Most of their main presidential candidates, as shown in this debate, are backing off their extreme withdrawal rhetoric for now, and the primary elections haven't even begun.
The base will accept lies from Democratic candidates, but will it ultimately accept outright disobedience on the issue that matters most to it? The Democrats better hope things go south in Iraq so they can safely tilt further left again. Otherwise, they are headed for trouble with the base, which might only take so much.