I DIDN'T SERVE WITH JOHN KERRY IN VIETNAM SO YOU SHOULD PROBABLY JUST TUNE ME OUT

Here are my thoughts on the whole Kerry Swiftboat nonsense

1) If you were voting for John Kerry because he won 3 people hearts in Vietnam, you're a moron
2) If you are no longer voting for John Kerry because you believe the attack ads against his Vietnam record, you're a gullible moron
3) If you produced the attack ads against John Kerry's Vietnam record, you're a sleazebag.
4) If you are making the argument that the real issue is John Kerry's veracity and therefore this inquiry into possibly exagerrated claims in his war record is really is a salient issue, you are either a soulless GOP shill, an easy mark for GOP shills, or fundamentally unserious about politics.

Look, I find the whole Kerry war-hero schtick highly problematic. First, because as it has indicated all along, the Democratic Party views national security primarily through the lens of politics, as if it were akin to gay marriage or some other cultural wedge issue that Republicans like to play whenever they are afraid working-class voters might actually realize how badly their policies screw them. So Kerry was chosen precisely with the current strategy he is now employing in mind.

The way Kerry baldly uses his personal heroism to deflect any concerns about his Jeffersonian foreign policy vision that he has consistently espoused (except when prompted by poltical necessity) for his entire public life should be fair game. But not the heroism itself. It is not only a cynical degredation of the public debate, but it exposes the very real fact that the Bushies aren't confident that they can win the national security debate substantively. When you consider the staggering record of incompetence left behind by Bush's four years, its not surprising that Rove has already turned to character assasination. After all, Kerry may not take the country where we need to go to defeat Islamist fundamentalism, but at least he'll get it wherever he's going in one piece.

John Kerry - He won't win the war on terror, but at least he won't lose it. Or something like that.