Kerry has made his strongest (and most unambiguous) claim yet over whether or not the invasion of Iraq was justified, saying that Bush displayed “colossal failures of judgement” and that the war was a “mistake“. The move seems to indicate that the Kerry campaign will attempt to move away from the economy and (let’s hope) the battle over the candidates’ Vietnam records and is instead going to focus on the most divisive event of Bush’s term. Whether or not it will pay off remains to be seen. This is a risky and potentially dangerous move–while a a great number of Americans now believe the war was a mistake, Bush is still seen as the better anti-terror candidate, and you can be sure that the Bush camp will continue to attempt to link Iraq with Al-Qaeda. Kerry will also be open to attacks that this is too little, too late–critics will undoubtedly claim that Kerry’s waited this long to make such a claim because he’s such a “flip-flopper“. (His platform has, in fact, never been ill-defined, but critics have made much of his “nuanced” approach as opposed to Bush’s so-called straight-talk.)

Supporters of Kerry will at least be relieved that Kerry has finally come out and unequivocally thrown down the glove.