Recently, a Washington Post news analysis piece contained the following paragraph:
“Privately, key Democratic strategists fear that attack ads against Kerry will undermine the Democratic presidential nominee's character and credibility, no matter whether the charges are accurate, because they dovetail with an argument Bush's campaign has tried to pound home in its advertising -- that Kerry is unreliable and untrustworthy. Many of the charges have been rebutted by veterans who served with Kerry and by military records.
But some Republican strategists see the potential for a backlash developing that will hurt the president, who they say must overcome doubts about his leadership on Iraq and the economy and can ill afford voters concluding that he and his campaign orchestrated the attacks on Kerry by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. “
“Dispute Over Kerry's Vietnam Service Cuts Both Ways,” Dan Balz and Jim VandeHei, August 25, 2004
The mainstream media may think it’s the “attack ads against Kerry” that undermine his credibility, but is that really true? Isn’t that a little like saying that the Modesto County DA undermined Scott Peterson’s reputation as a faithful husband?
After all, Mr. Peterson may in fact be innocent and nothing to do with killing his late wife, but it was the charge that revealed the awful truth of his two-timing, cheating, lying double life. I submit that the Swift Boat ads that have caused Sen. Kerry so much distress are the direct result of his own invitation—no brazen dare—to look into his heroic war record. If a liar’s lies are pointed out, who undermined his credibility—the liar or the one who pointed it out?
Then there were the foreign leaders who told him that he had to beat President Bush, his claim that he “volunteered” to go to Vietnam when he sought and was denied a deferment, and of course, the now infamous many-versioned story of Christmas in Cambodia. So, no doubt about it—his character and credibility have taken a beating, but like that first Purple Heart related injury, it was self-inflicted.
At the risk of piling on, let me add a couple of recently-reported tales.
Vietnam is a state of mind
In January, 2003, in Richmond, VA in which Senator Kerry spoke of learning of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King while he was in Vietnam, “a place of violence.” Good story, except the record shows that John Kerry didn’t arrive in Vietnam until November, 1968. A nitpick? Perhaps, but more evidence that this man is either delusional or willing to—shall we say—embellish, adapt, and otherwise distort his history to suit whatever politically expedient uses he wishes?
VC, The Amazing Survivor
Yes, “VC,” no, not the ones that John Kerry was meeting with in Paris back in 1970 while he was still a Naval officer, showing solidarity with their cause—you know, killing and defeating the members of his “Band of Brothers” who were still in country fighting the war—but a dog that John Kerry had on his Swift Boat in Vietnam. If you’re thinking that “VC” is an odd name for a dog, especially for an American Naval officer’s dog during the Vietnam war, perhaps it stood for “Vertical Canine.” I refer to the story that Kerry related on a presidential questionnaire from Humane USA asking whether pets have had an impact on his life. He didn’t mention that hamster that he resuscitated with CPR. Instead he said “I have always had pets in my life, and there are a few that I remember very fondly. When we ere serving on a Swift Boat in Vietnam, my crewmates and I had a dog we called VC. One day as our Swift Boat was heading up a river, a mine exploded hard under our boat. After picking ourselves up, we discovered VC was MIA (missing in action). Several minutes of frantic search followed, after which we thought we’d lost him. We were relieved when another boat called asking if we were missing a dog. It turns out VC was catapulted from the deck of our boat and landed, confused, but unhurt, on the deck of another boat asking if we were missing a dog.”
John McCaslin, “Inside the Beltway,” Washington Times, 8/25/04
So let’s see … the dog was ‘catapulted’ into the water? Or onto the deck of another boat? What?! And Kerry’s boat wasn’t damaged? Oh, yeah—that almost happened. Would you really want a dog on the deck of a Swift Boat where ambushes were a distinct possibility? Perhaps the incident is just one of those things that got confused in the Fog—or should I say Dog—of War. He probably should have stuck with the hamster story, as embarrassing as that one was. Is anyone getting the idea that Kerry isn’t exactly a dog lover here? No wonder that recent poll said that dog owners would prefer President Bush walk their dog, 51-37%.
Senator Kerry keeps telling us to entrust him with the office of the presidency at a time of war, citing his Vietnam record as his major, or only, qualification. By now, isn’t it obvious? That dog won’t hunt.