First John Kerry fires his campaign manager and then two staffers quit. Op-Ed columnists are already conducting the post-mortem. We tend to agree with those who say he was too arrogant--he thought the nomination was his--and his vote for the Iraq War did him in.

Kerry's malaise can be traced to one act, one decision, one vote: his support of the resolution giving President Bush the authority to invade Iraq. Had Kerry voted "no," he'd be the Democratic front-runner right now, bringing credibility on foreign policy because of his military service while also easily upstaging Wesley Clark on domestic policy.

Even now, a year later, Kerry has trouble giving a cogent rationale for his vote to go to war. You'd think a man like Kerry -- a decorated Vietnam veteran who later became an outspoken critic of that war -- would have a succinct, indeed passionate, explanation for his vote. But Kerry stammers, sputters, doubles back, never able to give a short and simple response. Perhaps that's because Kerry's vote was based on politics, not principle.