No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

Should Kerry offer a new and better Policy that is different from that of Bush?

There have been a number of complaints that Kerry offers rather little alternative in proposed policy for Iraq.

Quite true, and there are two reasons.

First is that Bush has moved much closer to the position articulated earlier by Kerry.

Second is that Bush committed ~the nation~ to his policy of preemptive war badly done, and whoever is President next January 21st will have to deal with the existing facts on the ground. In a policy sense, Bush has put this nation in the position so that there simply are no reasonable alternatives.

But do you really think that Kerry would have taken the rest of us up this creek after throwing away his paddle? I don't.

Do you think that his having taken the US into a really nasty situation and cutting off alternatives for success is a reason to leave Bush in office? I don't.

The solutions to the Iraq mess are not to be found in articulated policy right now. They are found in competently managing the government and doing things that work. For the most part, that means replacing the top government executives who operate based on ideological belief and political appearances regardless of the actual situation they face with realists who operate based on the facts they face.

This last year has shown that Kerry can put together an organization that successfully gets things done. For the last three years, Bush has shown that he does ~not~ have that skill. He is running for reelection based on holding command of the military and on his ability to orchestrate a really nasty nation-wide smear campaign.

I have been a manager, studied management and taught management, particularly strategic management (which is called policy-making in the government.) From my experience I have learned that poor managers can really screw up an outstanding strategy/policy when they try to implement it, while good managers can take a poor strategy/policy and beat it into shape successfully during the implementation.
Bush does the former, Kerry will do the latter.

Bush has given us really poor policy, then managed that poorly. But he has also left us in a position that offers very little in the way of reasonable alternative policies. Kerry offers us the chance to put a decent manager into office to deal with this disaster Bush has given us.

When you complain that Kerry isn't offering a real policy alternative you are missing the point. The problem right now isn't articulating a new and magic strategy. It is doing things right and getting us out of Iraq successfully. Bush has demonstrated that he cannot do that.

Quit asking for the impossible. The alternative policy you want simply isn't available now. We need to elect someone who can succeed in the current rotten situation Bush has left us. That's Kerry.