John Kerry says that Yasser Arafat has had a curious series of transformations: from outlaw, to statesman, to impediment. Kerry Shifts on Views of Arafat.

In a 1997 book, Kerry described “Arafat’s transformation from outlaw to statesman.” But in an interview with The Associated Press, he said he no longer views Arafat favorably.

“Obviously, Yasser Arafat has been an impediment to the peace process,” said Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting. “He missed a historic opportunity and he’s proved himself to be irrelevant.”

On Tuesday, Kerry visited a coffee shop in a Cuban-American neighborhood in Tampa before flying to Chicago for campaign appearances. He was awaiting results in four Southern states — Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — with delegate elections.

In a wide-ranging interview Monday with the AP, Kerry said Arafat “blew his opportunity” to be effective in 1999 and 2000.

So in Kerry’s impressively nuanced view (so nuanced it almost seems European), Arafat was an outlaw prior to 1997, then for a brief period became a statesman before reverting to outlaw status sometime around 1999.

So what made him a “statesman” for that brief shining moment?

“He was (a statesman) in 1995,” Kerry said, recalling frequent White House meetings between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in search of peace in the Middle East. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s an outlaw to the peace process.”

Oh, I get it. He was a “statesman” because John Kerry said so.