The most effective and often hilarious critic of John Kerry now says he’ll vote for him. The rationale? Here it is:
[W]e survived Carter and we’d survive Kerry (though it will be a long, hard slog!). I plan to vote for him because I think a) we need to take a time out from Bush’s strident public global terror war in order to prevent it from becoming a damaging, lifelong West vs. Islam clash–in order to “rebrand” America and digest the hard-won gains we’ve made in Iraq and Afghanistan (if they even remain gains by next January). Plus, b) it would be nice to make some progress on national health care, even if it’s only dialectical “try a solution and find out it doesn’t work” progress. I could change my mind–if, for example, I thought Kerry would actually sell out an incipient Iraqi democracy in a fit of “realistic” Scowcroftian stability-seeking (an issue Josh Marshall’s recent Atlantic piece doesn’t resolve). But I don’t intend to agonize like last time.”
Good for Mickey, I guess. I think it’s sign of real intelligence that someone can both essentially loathe a candidate and still, for various reasons, vote for him.
The Dish 