Team Obama and Biden have to learn from Kerry's grand blunder and "Get There First."
In Drew Westen's "The Political Brain", his chapter 'Positively Negative' concludes:
Kerry would have prevented most of the problems that ultimately undid his campaign if he and his advisors had just followed this simple, well-researched strategy ( psychological inoculation ). There was no sensible alternative to inoculation on the issue of his Senate testimony of April 1971. Kerry needed to explain to the American people why he had turned against the war and why he had testified about American atrocities. Leaving an "eighteen-minute gap" in his narrative simply telegraphed to Karl Rove where Kerry's team thought he was vulnerable. Embracing this part of his history would have given him the platform he needed later to speak about Abu Ghraib and to respond to the Swift Boat Veterans, who scored some of their most powerful points with the notion that Kerry's testimony was a betrayal of his fellow soldiers.
Whenever Democrats are tempted to take a "wait and see" approach, they need to remember that in politics, he who frames first usually frames best.
Biden needs to remind (teach) everyone that he and Dick Lugar (R) wanted a different version of the Iraq war bill - a version that was better in many key ways. The White House wanted a blank check, and the compromise bill is what Biden voted for.
Biden has to get into how his resolution differed from the White House proposal in that it 1) limited the authorization of force specifically to Iraq, while the White House wanted a blank card to wage war throughout "the region."
2)Biden's proposal placed a greater emphasis on international cooperation and focused on disarming Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, rather than the political project of regime change.
This difference is key, his version the BIDEN-LUGAR AMENDMENT, which the White House rejected and the Republican lapdogs snuffed out, would have avoided the occupation of Iraq altogether.
3) It authorized the use of force to disarm Saddam Hussein only after the exhaustion of all diplomatic efforts and weapons inspections.
The White House gave key Senators like Lugar and Biden personal assurances and then went back on their word.
The AUMF that was eventually passed was a compromise between what Biden wanted and what Bush hoped for.
Biden, to this day, regrets trusting this Administration with any power - let alone any more power than his bill would have constricted Bush to.
But unlike the Senior Senator from Arizona, Biden learns from errors.
A catastrophic Administration doesn't get 4 more years to 'get it right.' It gets changed - Obama/Biden is bringing change.
Something like that should be our story of his vote.
It's a pain to have to go there, but if we don't get there First, on our terms, then the GOP will tell the story in a way that negates most or all of Biden's strengths.
