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Monday, February 09, 2004
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HOW THE WORM TURNS
Senator Lurch has decided to make W's "service" in the Air National Guard a campaign issue. This is yet another issue where Kerry views have, shall we say, evolved. Judging solely by his campaign ads and his stump speech, reasonable people could come under the impression that Kerry never actually went home from Vietnam. It''s pretty smart politics, actually. It makes him seem more manly. Can anybody see Dennis Kucinich blowing up a bunch of Viet Cong? The only war I could see him is "Battlefield: Earth." and he'd be fighting on Travolta's side.
Once upon a time, John Kerry actually held a much different view on the relevance of military service in political campaigns. Of course, back then the Democratic nominee had his own "interesting" history of military service. I guess it's different when your boy has the vulnerable draft issue.
In and of itself, this flip probably won't much matter during the general election. You can bet your ass that Bush won't bring it up. But if Kerry keeps playing this line, there's that handy little speech from '92. The Republican response could be more effective than anyone thinks now. "All right," they can haughtily declare, "miltary service in a time of war IS important. Are you now ready to condemn President Clinton's conduct during that time, Senator Kerry." I think we all know how Kerry will handle that. He'll dodge it and never bring up the Alabama National Guard again.
It appears that former vice president Al Gore has completely lost his mind. Gore has this special talent of reminding people exactly why he lost in 2000. His speech yesterday in Tennessee make some reasonable points (although, I generally supported the war as an inevitablity, I had serious concerns over the way the administration planned and executed it), as always, Gore's delivery fucked him. Gore is so sensitive to the criticism that he's stiff by cutting loose from time to time. And when he does that, he starts screaming like a psychopath. How this guy got as far as he did in big time poltics, continues to astound me.
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