Thursday, August 26, 2004
As the issue winds down...
The Swift Boat smear seems to be running its course. I'm a bit surprised it went this far, given how little was there. If you are going to attack an episode in a man's life, you'd usually want the episode to be unseemly, or at least have the goods. In this case, the critics had neither, and John Kerry comes out looking like, well, a hero. This op-ed from today's NYT sums this up as poignantly as anything I've seen.
The critics, and the president who's men backed them, come out looking like bitter, backbiting old warmongers who have never accepted that Vietnam was a dishonorable, pointless, cruel war, even if many honorable men fought bravely in it. This op-ed pretty much sums that up.
And the effect on the election? Kerry may have been hurt a bit, but the story has no more legs, and could still backfire. The critics have been fairly well shown to be lying, or, to be more generous than they deserve, inconsistent (and they accused Kerry of nothing more than that themselves). To those who are watching, Bush once again reveals himself as a truly ugly and dishonorable man, who will permit his henchmen to impugn a man who showed bravery when Bush showed only cowardice.
The whole thing reminds me of the pseudo-scandals of the Clinton administration. A tissue of lies and innuendo, which, even if true or coherent, wouldn't amount to anything. A scandal whose purpose is to distract attention from real issues, or to apply a broad but vague tarnish to an opponent.
Bush admin scandals, you will note, tend to involve people getting hurt for the profit of others. These, we are told, are nothing by comparison.
The critics, and the president who's men backed them, come out looking like bitter, backbiting old warmongers who have never accepted that Vietnam was a dishonorable, pointless, cruel war, even if many honorable men fought bravely in it. This op-ed pretty much sums that up.
And the effect on the election? Kerry may have been hurt a bit, but the story has no more legs, and could still backfire. The critics have been fairly well shown to be lying, or, to be more generous than they deserve, inconsistent (and they accused Kerry of nothing more than that themselves). To those who are watching, Bush once again reveals himself as a truly ugly and dishonorable man, who will permit his henchmen to impugn a man who showed bravery when Bush showed only cowardice.
The whole thing reminds me of the pseudo-scandals of the Clinton administration. A tissue of lies and innuendo, which, even if true or coherent, wouldn't amount to anything. A scandal whose purpose is to distract attention from real issues, or to apply a broad but vague tarnish to an opponent.
Bush admin scandals, you will note, tend to involve people getting hurt for the profit of others. These, we are told, are nothing by comparison.
