From the Don't Panic file...

Amidst much fretting that there's insufficient ground separating Kerry and Bush on Iraq policy, largely due to the Bush administration's efforts to co-opt the Kerry campaign's positions on the issue, Noam Scheiber hits the nail squarely on the head. Writing for &c. at the New Republic, Scheiber takes a decided 'Don't Panic' tone.

First, the fact that Bush has moved closer to Kerry on some Iraq-related questions is neither here nor there. Iraq is Bush's baby. Everyone knows it's Bush's baby. And if it keeps going badly, he's finished, regardless of how close he happens to be to Kerry's positions on the matter. Second, Kerry isn't left to argue that he has more credibility in executing the same policies. He's left to argue that Iraq has been a disaster, and that it's Bush's fault--which is almost self-evidently true. And, finally, declaring a timetable for withdrawing the troops would not be politically advantageous for Kerry. Doing so would give Bush cover to lay out a timetable of his own, which would be substantively disastrous but pretty useful politically for the White House. By not budging from his commitment to stay the course in Iraq, Kerry forces Bush to do the same, meaning he has to keep owning every inch of the disaster Iraq has become.

In fact, regardless of his notorious, if now ancient, vote on the original Iraq war powers authorization, no reasonable person can believe that this is the war Kerry voted for. He's repeatedly said as much, avowing that those who believe he would have conducted a war at the time it was started and in the manner it's been waged shouldn't vote for him. Indeed, they shouldn't. Everyone else should.