Gee, I was watching that and it sure seemed to me that the "no" was qualified with an explanation of the vote. Basically, Kerry's position, and I know that there's a bit of political speak here, is that his vote on the authorization was simply to give the President some wiggle room to conduct the foreign policy as he saw fit, unburdened by the spector of having to gain Congressional approval if conditions changed rapidly. He firmly stated that, at the time of the vote, the mindset was simply that and not a feeling that Bush would use it immediately without trying lots of other avenues first.

I have to say that I was dead-set against the war at that time and felt betrayed by the Congressmen that voted for that resolution. At the same time, I also understood the immense political pressure all of them were under to not buck the president during a national crisis. I think, without the huge surge of nationalistic fervor that was going on then, that it would've been very likely many of the more isolationist and Libertarian-style Republican politicians would also have been against the measure.