Al Sharpton & Kucinich

Hey, he's pretty popular in Hawaii it seems ...

Al as White House Spokesman. I like.

It would be extremely disengenuous for Kerry to talk about who he would have as VP already. He'll say when a) it's an issue (i.e. he's ACTUALLY the nominee, not the nominee-apparent), and b) he's decided and has talked to the person and has made an agreement. If he says, "Edwards would be great," and then Edwards decides no how, no way, doesn't look too good. (And pisses off other potential VP's who are publicly second-best.)

For Iraq, I too hope he comes up with something concrete fairly soon, but I think there is the same sort of motivation -- he wants to get it right before announcing anything. Doesn't want anything on the record that he would have to go back on. So I imagine he and his staff will think through it thoroughly, come up with something, and then stick to it.

On the VP, I agree.

But Kerry's been in Congress throughout the whole Iraq process. I mean, if this was a novice in foreign policy, I'd buy the "wants to think it through thoroughly" argument. But Kerry's specialised on foreign policy throughout his Senate career, shouldnt he know what he thinks about it by now?

Sounds more like he wants to avoid staking out an all too clear position, so as not to risk estranging anyone. But there are as many risks in avoiding issues (or trying to, as detractors would say, "be everything to everyone") as in just making clear where you stand and defending it.

Yeah, I agree with that. Hope he does something soon.

I think he must have an opinion, but I can buy that this would take awhile -- he needs to figure out not only what would be the best course of action, but what the voting public wants, and how to reconcile those two things and package them.

Actually I think both Sharpton & Kucinich have good ideas and have managed to get their voices heard. I hope they continue to stay in the race if for no other reason than to keep getting the message of the democrats across. I personally don't see the attraction of Edwards but if he does end up being the VP then I guess he can't do any harm and that is the main thing.

(I realize that we are not supposed to say this, but I got a feeling that Bush is going to elected anyway. I mean he has got all that money and the one thing he knows how to do is spin and make a lot of people believe that something is blue when it is red so to speak. He will probably bring Bin Laden out at the last minute and cinch the whole thing and we will have four more years of our country going down the tubes. The only bright spot will be that by that time they won't get away with saying things are going to improve or that they have improved we are just too stupid to see it. )

As for Kerry and how he would handle Iraq now that we are already in it, I imagine there is not a whole lot that he can differently than Bush is doing now other than be more smart and diplomatic to those who were against the Iraq invasion and let them have an equal part in all decisions so that it would not be so much a US thing.

Kerry has to be very careful in what he promises to do about Iraq. That, right now, is a very divisive issue among the voters. He can't afford to alienate any faction of the electorate by making specific promises which might not jibe with the desires of some voters. He's after all the votes he can get.