John Kerry has done well so far because he's not Howard Dean: He doesn't have steam coming out of his ears every time he opens his mouth, and he does have national security experience. But now that he's the frontrunner, he will be subjected to the same kind of withering scrutiny that caused Dr. Dean to turn into Mr. Hyde.
Kerry's military record is one of his strongest selling points for Democrats hungry for a credible candidate. Kerry, as he himself never tires of pointing out, is a decorated veteran. But so were Bob Dole and John McCain. Heroism in wartime doesn't necessarily earn you the Oval Office.
From the standpoint of presidential qualifications, the 18 years that Kerry spent on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is more relevant. He's been a leader in fighting international crime and reestablishing relations with Vietnam. Although he voted against the Persian Gulf War in 1991, he's cultivated a reputation as a moderate on national security -- an image buttressed by his selection of Rand Beers as his campaign coordinator for these issues.
Beers is a career civil servant who worked on counter-terrorism for presidents of both parties. He resigned from the National Security Council last year because he thought Iraq would take resources away from other parts of the war on terrorism. I disagree, but it's a reasonable critique, and Beers is known as a solid professional.
So what kind of foreign policy have Kerry and Beers crafted? Kerry gave his biggest foreign policy address to date at the Council on Foreign Relations on Dec. 3. He made some excellent points about the need to improve homeland security, combat money laundering, do more in Afghanistan and hold the Saudis accountable for their support of terrorism. And he was right on the money in criticizing the current administration for not sending its senior officials overseas to sell Washington's case.
But a lot of Kerry's speech was pure partisan windbaggery. "The Bush administration," he claimed, "has pursued the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in modern history." Really? More inept than Jimmy Carter's, Lyndon Johnson's or Woodrow Wilson's? Kerry also rapped Bush for failing to achieve peace between Israel and its neighbors. He pledged to appoint as "presidential ambassador to the peace process" someone like Bill Clinton. Why Clinton would have more success brokering a settlement as an ex-president than when he was president remains a mystery.
