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[bryant]

Kerry continues to be not-Dukakis. The following quote is from Ben Barnes, former Lieutenant Governor of Texas.

Let’s talk a minute about John Kerry and George Bush and I know them both. And I’m not name dropping to say I know ‘em both. I got a young man named George W. Bush in the National Guard when I was Lt. Gov. of Texas and I’m not necessarily proud of that. But I did it. And I got a lot of other people into the National Guard because I thought that was what people should do, when you're in office you helped a lot of rich people. And I walked through the Vietnam Memorial the other day and I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam and I became more ashamed of myself than I have ever been because it was the worst thing that I did was that I helped a lot of wealthy supporters and a lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National Guard and I’m very sorry about that and I’m very ashamed and I apologize to you as voters of Texas.

Here's the video.

The kicker? This clip is reportedly from a June 8th rally. Kerry's been sitting on this until the Swift Boat Vets started smearing, because it's most effective when it stands in contrast to Kerry's service in Vietnam. Of course, Barnes is a Democrat, and thus partisan, but that hardly means he's lying and it doesn't mean this won't be effective.

Comments

[tagryn]

My guess is that Rove et al. figure that in a mud-slinging match, they'll come out ahead because after 4 years most folks already have made up their minds about Bush, one way or another, whereas Kerry's still largely an unknown to the casual voter, so news items that reflect negatively on him are more likely to have an impact than anything the DNC can dig up on Bush's Guard service.

We'll see. The SBV stuff seems to be having an impact on the polls, but IMHO eventually the average voter'll get sick of the Vietnam rehashing on both sides and start wondering whether either candidate is interested in the issues that affect their everyday lives. So, while this stuff is taking up the news cycle during the dog days of summer, I suspect it'll all be forgotten once the election draws near.

Of course, its possible I'm underestimating the average Baby Boomer's obsession level with Vietnam...

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's been a lot of bashing of Kerry saying he wasn't aggressive enough on the Swift liars, but when people flat out lie and the media doesn't call them on it but instead broadcasts the lies, it's real hard to fight a smear. I think Kerry did about as well as he could. I'm not thrilled that the electoral has swung back, but better now than after the convention.