OK, Will Pitt, PeteNYC, this is what Kerry has to say:

[Raven]

"I voted to authorize the War because I thought that you, George Bush, would use that authorization wisely...you would use it to negotiate...you would use it diplomatically...you would use it to facilitate the weapons inspectors' further work because everybody knows that weapons inspectors have to have the threat of force behind them."

" I never thought, nor did most of my colleagues, that you would run headlong into a war where you had not planned for the peace...we all thought that you would use the tools we gave you wisely and carefully...and you did the opposite...you were rash...like a child in a sandbox with a tank...and you were reckless, reckless with the lives of our kids and with innocent Iragi civilains"

"Those of us who voted for the war for these reasons regret the trust we put in you and our country is reaping the distructive seeds that you have sown"

Kerry needs to say something like this...soon and with clarity!

[AP]

1. I think the speeches Edwards & Kerry gave yesterday make the vote a non-

issue.

Who could listen to those speeches and then listen to Bush complain about the vote and think that Bush is talkinga about anything relevant.

I don't hink Kerry needs to respond to that issue any more than he and Edwards did in yesterday's new speeches.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. Nope too long and too wordy..check out Robert Seattle's post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x807866#807895

Something like:

"Americans I gave President Bush the apporval to load the weapon, the decision on if, when, and how to fire it was George Bush's call as Commander in Chief"

and he and his ideologues made the wrong call (is all I would add to that)

[virgdem]

3. Please send this to the Kerry campaign...

every idea or good thought needs to be brought to the attention of the Kerry campaign at johnkerry.com. He does need to clarify his stance on Iraq and to distinctly differentiate himself from Chimpy. Your talking points are excellent and will help his advisers in crafting the best possible message with which to stick it to Bush.

[HFishbine]

4. Isn't it kind of funny

that posters on Internet messsage boards are having to craft words for Kerry? Why doesn't Kerry just say what he thinks about it? Should that be such a problem?

[sangh0]

5. Even funnier is

that their version is longer than Kerry's.

[HFishbine]

8. Link?

Have a link to Kerry's "short answer?"

[Fovea]

16. No. It is natural

I submitted part of an Iowa stump speech for Clinton
Back in 92 to his campaign assistant who was on Compuserve. One rather hackneyed phrase that was in my draft about being asleep at the switch made it in to the final draft, as I remember. Who knows if that was because of me or not. Perhaps I just had my hands around the throat of the zeitgeist.

[Snellius]

6. What gets to Bush is Kerry's position of getting out soon

Where Bush has a real problem is not so much the past. To refight the IWR. That ground has already been fought over to death, but what to do in the future. If Kerry really wants to set a trap, he will keep pounding that the goal in Iraq is to get out as soon as we can. If, as Bush claims, the world is safer without Saddam and if he is bringing democracy to the people of Iraq, then fine, we're done. Let's go. The more Kerry pushes this the more Bush is forced to admit the ulterior motives he is still afraid to admit: that the ultimate end is geopolitical domination and control over Mideast oil.

[David Dunham]

7. Kerry should focus on Iraq NOW, not how he voted 2 years ago.

[WiseMen]

9. Kerry Advisor Wendy Sherman has good presention of Kerry views

But she does not get much press attention.

[nomaco-10]

10. Well, too damn bad he didn't listen to Paul Wellstone, Ted Kennedy and....

Robert Byrd amongst many others........

[belle]

11. Shorter still: "Bush, you broke it; you bought it."

[Randers]

13. Unfortunatey - Bush probably DOES think he owns it

Wouldn't want to fuel his delusion.

[BigBigBear]

12. I said it was about 'trust'

a couple of days ago - Kerry and the rest of Congress trusted Bush to act with honesty and competance after 9/11, and instead he turned the show over to Haliburton and Ahmed Chalabi, lied to the UN, pissed off our friends, squandered 1000's of lives and now can't get us out.

More or less exactly what you said here.

So...I get the cookie, okay?

[Bleacher Creature]

14. I'm still partial to what he said to Rolling Stone

"I voted to give President Bush the authority. Then President Bush f***ed it up."

[John_H]

15. " Nobody authorized George Bush to rush to war. The Senate voted

to give George Bush the power to keep America safe without making young Americans do what I had to do thirty years ago.

George Bush made the decision to rush to war all by himself.

Nobody authorized George Bush to mislead the american people. The Senate voted to give him the chance to level with the American people.

George Bush made the decision to mislead the american people all by himself.

Nobody authorized George Bush to mishandle peace so badly that American troops have paid for bad planning with their lives. The Senate voted to give him time to avoid a lengthy and costly occupation.

George Bush bungled the peace all by himself.

If passing that resolution was a mistake, it wasn't because a president of the united states doesn't deserve the authority to protect America.

No: If that vote was a mistake, the mistake was trusting George W. Bush to do the right thing. The mistake was trusting the competence of Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz.

George Bush wants us all to vote for him because he's a "war President" A war president doesn't make those mistakes. A war president doesn't mislead the American people. And a war president sure as hell doesn't try to blame others for decision that were his alone!"

Now I'm an armchair speechwriter, too.