Kerry and his magic wand.

"I don't envision it," he said when asked if he would send more U.S. soldiers [to Iraq]. "I believe that my leadership and my plan to approach these countries -- and I'm not negotiating it publicly -- I know what I want to do. I know what I believe can be achieved."

Kerry’s position has forced Biden to soften his steady calls for more US troops in Iraq. On Meet the Press today, Biden was ambiguous on such a need and apparently thought Kerry’s diplomatic wand would work:


SEN. BIDEN: Well, let me tell you what our flag officers, generals, that I met with three or four Sundays ago in Baghdad told me. They said from their experience, they know, since there's going to be somewhere on the order of--there are going to be thousands of polling places, up to 25,000 polling places, for this election in January, that they're going to need a surge of force. Now, what they're planning on doing is they're planning on keeping people there a little longer and sending people a little sooner so you overlap with up to 20,000 to 30,000 additional forces. In addition to that, it's about time that the French and the Germans and the rest having voted for this resolution to turn this over to the Iraqis and the U.N. mandate here, that they come up with at least the 4,000 troops that are required to protect the U.N. forces. So the combination of additional forces from outside, possibility of this Muslim force, and probably the need to surge forces are all there.

The questions for Kerry are: What happens if you can’t get France and Germany on board? Part of Bush's problem was that he didn't get some international support that he hoped for - how are you certain that you will? Why can’t you tell us about what you will do to get more international support? Can you envision a scenario where your protectionist trade policies might alienate some of the foreign support you say you will bring to Iraq? Or are the two issues completely separate? Do you believe, as Biden seems to think, that France is holding out because of a personal dislike for Bush?

The Biden quote I refer to is from today’s Meet the Press: And John Kerry's going to end up as president of the United States, God willing, where he is going to have to tell the French and the Germans and the rest, "Get over it. You don't have George Bush as an excuse anymore. Move. Get moving."