Goldberg and Guthrie

I have seen this discussed in the past, but I guess it never dawned on me how weird it was: John Kerry voted against the first Gulf War. Here's his speech defending that vote. What happened in the intervening 15 years that made him change his mind? September 11? Can't be - the Dem's primary argument against the war in Iraq is that it had nothing to do with September 11. WMDs? No - we already knew Saddam had those back then - he used them against the Kurds in the 1980s. (And, the goal of the first Gulf War was never to take Saddam out of power anyway.) I suppose in the speech he indicates that the public support wasn't there the first time - but that's sure not how I remember it and, besides, the reason the public support was so strong this time was that no important figures in the Democratic party (save one) spoke up against the war while it was popular. (I take that back - two did: Howard Dean and Al Gore.) I guess one preposterous theory is that he knew he was running for President the second time around. (By the way, Howard Dean did support the first Gulf War.)

Maybe he just changed his mind.