HOME / kerryisms: The senator's caveats and curlicues.

Kerryism of the DayThe senator's caveats and curlicues.

By William SaletanUpdated Monday, June 28, 2004, at 4:19 PM ET

What did he say? (For instructions on how to read a Kerryism, click here.)

"If I'm president, we'll have a military second to nobody in this world, and I won't hesitate to use force1 2 to achieve our goal."

­­—Washington Post interview, May 28, 2004

[1] if necessary

[2] as a last resort

Verbatim:
If I'm president, we'll have a military second to nobody in this world, and I won't hesitate to use force if necessary as a last resort to achieve our goal.

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William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War. Follow him on Twitter here.
Photograph of John Kerry by Marc Serota/Reuters.
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