More Kerry Unseriousness

As I have written previously, I don't think that VietNam and Kerry's or Bush's service during that time makes any difference now or is relevant to this campaign. And I think that most Republicans would agree and would rather not make this an issue. Kerry, however, has chosen to make this the centerpiece of his campaign for President, and is now upset when he is questioned on it. But with every day, there is more and more to question regarding his VietNam experience.

The first major attack on Kerry's VietNam record has come in the form of a book, Unfit for Command, and an ad from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The Kerry campaign response to the ad was to threaten to sue TV stations for airing it, and accusing those veterans of having a political agenda and backing from a Texas Republican. This is the best they can do? The Kerry campaign, having politicized the issue of his VietNam service, is now "shocked...shocked to find" that it is being politically used and attacked by their opponents. So instead of trying to disprove these allegations, they attempt to impugn the vets themselves.

The latest problem for the Kerry VietNam campaign is his numerous assertions that he spent Christmas of 1968 in Cambodia. Not even the crewmembers of his boat, let alone every officer in his chain of command, can support this whopper. And so the Kerry campaign is left floundering to somehow explain away this one. As Mark Steyn writes

I'm Vietnammed out. But it's the centrepiece of Kerry's campaign: the other day, asked a straightforward question about 9/11, he stuck to the current millennium for a good 20 seconds and then veered off into "the war that I fought in was a war where we saw America lose its support for the war, where the soldiers came back having had to do what our soldiers are doing today, carry an M-16 in another country, try to tell the difference between friend and foe. I know what it's like to go out at night on patrol", etc, etc. So, since Vietnam seems to be the only subject on which he has anything to say, it would be reassuring to know that at least he's got that right.

What would be even more reassuring is if Kerry actually spoke about the problems of the present, or the issues that we will have to confront in the future, as opposed to simply reliving his past "glories" (or fabricating ones).