--- Jim Sharkey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Why would this surprise anyone? I'm sure someone > here will correct > me if I am misremembering, but didn't they manage to > paint a Democrat in Georgia who was a Vietnam > veteran and lost limbs in the > war as unpatriotic? It's not like there's much > lower to sink. > > Jim
No, they did not. I actually posted an article on this list _by a Democrat_ describing that as a myth. They (correctly) painted a Democrat in Georgia (Max Cleland) as a bad Senator who had very bad judgment on national security issues. He lost the election because of that - as he should have, because he was, in fact, a bad Senator, however inspiring his life story. Democrats have a weird problem figuring this out (McGovern, Kerry). Biography is not policy. The fact that someone served in Vietnam (or any war) is impressive. It doesn't actually mean that they're any good at national security policy - again, McGovern, Kerry. Of course the Republicans are going over Kerry's service record. That's their job. Particularly because "I served in Vietnam" appears to be John Kerry's only rationale for being elected. Since that's all he's got, they might as well look at it. No member of the Bush campaign, though, has done anything like the Dukakis campaign did in 1988 - sending out false rumors to reporters that George Bush had been investigated for cowardice in the Second World War (for the event for which he actually won, I believe, a DFC). So perhaps the outrage is a little selective? Certainly people who voted for Michael Dukakis over George Bush, Bill Clinton over George Bush, and Bill Clinton over Bob Dole, are in a somewhat odd position arguing that the simple fact that John Kerry served in Vietnam means he should be elected - which is, at the moment, pretty much what Kerry's campaign comes down to. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover
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