Democrats floundering in oppostion to Mideast policy

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Tom Curry of MSNBC.com writes:

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a contender for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, let loose a blistering critique of President Bush’s Middle East policy Sunday, saying the president had made “a catastrophic mistake” by not building on President Clinton’s Camp David negotiations and by sending confusing signals to Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

If this is the best the Democrats can come up with, then Bush really has been lucky in the choice of his opponents. The timing of Kerry's statement was unfortunate for him; Bush's call for democracy and freedom in the Palestinian territories swept Kerry off the map. What's worse, though, was Kerry's followup statement:

There is no fundamental plan, and they have restrained the State Department and Colin Powell from effectively being the State Department and being the Secretary of State. I think they’ve got to announce a vision. They’ve got to put something on the table and take advantage of this new dynamic that exists in the Arab world.

My feeling is that Colin Powell's vision is a non-starter. It is predicated on the failed idea that you can trust Arafat. The American people can see through that. Kerry should see through that too.