If the Kerry Campaign had hired Glenn Reynolds, No One would be talking about SwiftBoatVets, Purple Hearts or Christmas in Cambodia
and George Bush would be in deep doo-doo, compared to where he is. In a parody worthy of Scott Ott, Professor Reynolds of Instapundit writes the most brilliant miniature of how the Kerry camp has screwed the pooch. The Swiftboatvets story would be a non-issue, if Kerry had focused on the future instead of the past. Excerpt:
EAST HAMPTON, NY (IP) — Democratic Presidential nomineee John Kerry laughs when told that most voters don’t realize that he served in Vietnam, winning three purple hearts, a bronze star, and a silver star.
“Why should they? That’s several wars ago,” Kerry laughs. “Old stuff. I’d much rather people be talking about my detailed plan to rebuild Iraq, using an oil trust mechanism that would give the Iraqi people a stake in reconstruction. That’s why I focused on that in my acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. What was I going to do, rehash events from 35 years ago?”
Kerry’s friends say that, like other veterans, he’s been known to tell a few tall tales about his service over beers with others who served, but that he seldom talks about his combat experience otherwise. “He’s put that behind him,” says his wife Teresa. “And he thinks it would be unbecoming to make a big deal about his service when others, like [Senator] John McCain or [former P.O.W.] Paul Galanti went through so much more.”
Ya gotta love the “tall tales” bit. Heh.
Of course, as Reynolds himself notes, Kerry would joined Lieberman in popularity with such a program. Sad for the country, but true.