I am starting to enjoy reading Joan Vennochi. Her Globe OpEd columns have a more sincere sound than the party-line blovations that are the stock-in-trade of the page. Today Joan wrestles with Kerry's newest campaign strategy - focusing on the war in Iraq and positioning himself as the candidate who can fix the "mess" that the war there has become.

One thing you can say for this, at least it is a strategy. Though only six weeks before the election it seems like the most viable strategy they have tried so far. It sure beats the strategy Taranto caricatures as being "a haughty French-looking Democratic Senator who by the way served [4 months] in Vietnam".

The difficulty with it is that over the course of the campaign Kerry has articulated so many positions at one time or another that the electorate (as perhaps the candidate himself) are uncertain where they really stand. Churchill derided legislatures that took place in "fan-shaped rooms" allowing the members to adjust their position by degrees from one side to another. He preferred the layout of the Commons, where the parties face each other and vote with their bodies by moving to one side. Winnie was onto something. Kerry is every bit as inarticulate as his opponent, not because of learning disabilities, but because he has spent his whole career adjusting by small degrees his position in fan-shaped rooms. A formidable intellect or vocabulary is a wonderful thing, but those gifts will not tell you (or anyone else) who you really are.

I love this little quote from Joan, too. In peacetime (meaning when there is not an election pending) this might be considered too sexist a remark from a liberal in the Globe. But damn the sexism, anything to beat W. Here is her remark and the column:

The pollsters and pundits say women will vote for the candidate who makes them feel most secure. Some polls show that female support is shifting to Bush. Kerry needs to change that dynamic — and quickly. By voting to authorize war, Kerry essentially turned the car keys over to a president who recklessly drove America to the wrong war in the wrong country at the wrong time. Taking back the car keys should make many women feel more, not less, secure. Putting Kerry in the driver's seat makes sense, as long as he stops driving around Iraq in circles.

When you make a wrong turn in traffic, life, or war, you don't keep on going. You stop, acknowledge that you were wrong, and do what it takes to get back on track. As women know, a man who admits that is rare indeed, and worth electing to the presidency.