I Can Get Behind this Phrase

I admit that John Kerry is not exactly "Mr. Catch Phrase", but his weakness in that area is made up by other things. However, New Donkey is correct that this talking point for Kerry courtesy of Joe Klein is on the money.

Time columnist Joe Klein has a simple suggestion for what John Kerry ought to be saying about Iraq: blast Bush for fighting an incompetent, no-win war, and challenge him to get serious about ending the Sunni insurgency or admit the whole thing's been a failure. Klein even scripts a debate line for JK: "Fight the war, Mr. President, or bring the troops home."

This is especially true because it is evident that the Bush Administration is ceding large areas of Iraq to the insurgents rather than engage in bloody fights with them before the election (and forget the "alien" concept of ceding large tracts of Iraq to Iraqis for the moment). They are doing this to keep casualties down before the election, only to engage in larger offensive (bloodier offensives) after the election. This is bad strategy and bad tactics in the name of craven politics. It would be nice if the press was a little more direct with their criticisms of this obvious fact, but there you are.