I heard Pat Buchanan this morning (I know, you think all I do during the morning drive is tune into right-wing radio programs). He started with the near-obligatory statements about the convention being a fraud, and how the media has been complicit (though I’ve argued quite the opposite), but then he actually brought up a fairly interesting point.

For what it’s worth, out of the many right-wing talking heads out there, I must say that Buchanan sounds downright lucid and reasonable in comparison. His point was that Iraq appears to be a “cauldron,” an operation that is a mess and very likely will become a much greater mess. Buchanan has stated, “Operation Iraqi Freedom was an unnecessary war.” Yet, he criticizes Kerry for not shooting straight in that Buchanan believes deep down Kerry believes, as the delegates believe, that this occupation is wrong and we should get out. With Kerry telling the American people the contrary, he might be setting himself up for disaster if he wins the election and the Iraq situation takes a significant turn for the worse. Having inherited a disaster, and yet proclaiming in 2004 that he will stay the course, the American people may begin to tag Kerry with their anger, not caring a wit about the prior guy who got us into this mess. It’s a bit like LBJ inheriting the Vietnam War. It’s not like Reagan inheriting Carter’s Iran hostage “mess.”

In that sense, when right-wingers question whether Dems love the country or instead simply love Kerry, I would say if we simply loved Kerry, for the reason above we could urge him not to run. GW created this Iraqi mess, let him finish cleaning it up. On top of that, Kerry will have to clean up the deficit mess. We love our country because despite these things, we go ahead and urge Kerry to run. We know that it will only get worse if GW stays in office.