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The Daily Whim

The Daily Whim

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Fri. Aug 06, 2004

Blah Blah Kerry Blah Blah Bush Blah Blah Vietnam

I hear that the big issue in this campaign … is Vietnam. How you served, whether you served, when you served, and what you deserved. We are apparently expected to judge our next President by what they did decades ago. Or rather, by what some people claim they did decades ago.

Let’s see, by his own admission, until about the age of 40, Bush was an alcoholic with no focus in life. I would add that at that point in his life, he’d never held a job that his daddy didn’t help him get.

Shall we cast our vote based on that version of his past (much more recent than Vietnam), or should we maybe focus on the present? And the future? And maybe the recent past (like, the past ten years or so)?

Here’s a reaction I found most instructive. Despite his various unvarnished criticisms of the Bush administration, when it came down to “brass tacks,” last week Sen. John McCain hit the campaign trail with George Bush, like a Good Republican. But yesterday Sen. McCain showed that, like an elephant that was once cruelly ambushed, he has a long memory:

“It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me,” McCain said, referring to attacks on his military record during the 2000 Republican primary race by supporters of Bush. At the time, Kerry and other senators who served in Vietnam came to McCain’s defense.

“I deplore this kind of politics,” McCain told the Associated Press. “I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat (Kerry) commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under fire. I think John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam. I think George Bush served honorably in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.”

SF Chronicle: “Vets group attacks Kerry; McCain defends Democrat”

And that ought to be the end of it. But it won’t be.

I wish Kerry hadn’t made his service such a focus of his campaign, and thus a juicy target. But he did. I wish Bush hadn’t declared himself a “War President,” and thus made his service another equally juicy target. But he did.

However, it’s my opinion that the “swing voters,” the undecideds who will determine this election (and who are likely drawn more to McCain than either Kerry or Bush), find all of this a bit pointless and irrelevant. Maybe worse. I say this because I’m currently in that group, yet I feel no need to dig back 35 years to find data to make a decision about who will be President in 2005.

And if you’ve already made your clear choice of candidates, you really don’t need that data either. If you’re slamming Bush over his National Guard records from three decades ago, you’re not saying it was the deciding factor in how you’ll cast your vote, you’re saying “this is another reason I hate him.” Same with Kerry and his record in Vietnam. You’ve already made up your mind, and the latest “news” from three decades ago didn’t tip you over the line … it just makes you gleeful. So you spread it around, and those in the choir to which you preach are also gleeful.

Hallelujah.

But out in the congregation, I’m nappin’, until y’all move on to something relevant. Right now, all I hear is, “Blah Blah Kerry Blah Blah Bush Blah Blah Vietnam.” Snore.

And, unfortunately, I’m beginning to think this means I could end up sleeping until November 3. Don’t y’all remember how, collectively, Americans did their damndest not to elect anybody last time around? Almost worked, too.

What if this time we get it right?

Posted 11:42AM, Fri, Aug 06 2004 in · · 9 Comments below


Peanut Gallery

1  Harvey wrote:

I’m with you 100% on this one. There are plenty of substantive, issue-related things to harp on the candidates about, most of which can be found on their campaign web-sites.

I wish they’d spend more time talking about those things.

Comment by Harvey · 08/ 6/04 01:29 PM
2  JLawson wrote:

Aw, but then there’d be some hard and fast measurements we could judge their performance against. Can’t have that, can we?

Seriously, if there were a “None of the above” on the ballot, that’d likely win this year.

J.

Comment by JLawson · 08/ 6/04 02:28 PM
3  Kevin wrote:

If that “none of the above” were John McCain, I know who’d win.

Comment by Kevin · 08/ 6/04 06:15 PM
4  rturner wrote:

Well, I learned a long time ago that when a candidate comes along who seems perfect to me he’ll get swept by a landslide (Goldwater, McGovern) or shot (Bobby Kennedy). Probably the main reason we don’t have McCain to vote for again this year is that we, collectively, allowed dirty tricks to push him out of the 2000 race. I was dying to vote for him last time, but as usual had to choose who I thought was the lesser of two evils.

I happen to think that war experience (or avoidance thereof) 35 years ago goes to character, but that’s just me. Kerry is talking about his war record and his Band of Brothers because Bush has been running on his War on Terror (and nothing else) for three years now and the collective “we” has allowed such luminaries as Rush Limbaugh, Neil Boortz and Sean Hannity to convince us that Democrats can’t defend the country.

It’s our own fault that we allow Willy Horton and Daisygirl/Nuke ads to influence elections. Both sides are just doing what they have to do to win, and we’ve been collectively telling them what it is that truly has an impact on getting our votes. Even though we say we’d prefer that they try harder to be our perfect candidates. Oh well, might as well grin & bear it; we’ve got 90 some odd days of who’s the biggest warrior to listen to until we either make a choice or end up sitting home (& letting others make it).

Comment by rturner · 08/ 6/04 10:26 PM
5  Kevin wrote:

“We” let him fall to dirty tricks? The people of South Carolina fell for it… but, my anger is still only saved for the dirty trickster who orchestrated the whole thing: Karl Rove.

Comment by Kevin · 08/ 7/04 05:53 PM
6  Donna in San Antonio TX wrote:

No one TALKS about the Muslim have a sacred practice of beheading people that do not believe as they do. That is all Christians & Jews. They even do it to their own people when then feel they are not believers. Please, see MUSLIM INFIDELS Web. They have set a plan in motion many years ago, & their group has grown quite large the last 10 years. They feel John Kerry is weak & they want the Democrats in power because they feel Pres.Bush is stronger. Quote “They have killed in 1 day 600-900 Muslims from the Qurayza were lead on Muhammad’s order”. Trenches were dug-the Muslim men were beheaded. Their corpses buried in trenches while he watched. There plan is to do the same to the Americans
especially Christians & Jews.
People don’t realize the World’s
peace, America’s Safety & our way of life is at stake! The sooner we get rid of the crazy Muslims the better we are going to be. they even still teach their children to lie & Kill everyone they feel is an infidel,(nonbeliever in the Muslim Koran.
They kill the men & use women & children as slaves. When they come her in bigger groups we will have to hide (men in their long robes) women in the berkas so we are not shot in the streets! There are many people in the Middle East that are not safe if they have or read the Bible.
In their Qoran it said “When you encounter those infidels who deny the truth-Islam then strike their necks”. (Qur’an sura 47, verse 4)
How is YOUR NECK NOW?
We need a strong President.
Not a person that lies about his war record & did very little in the Senate. He has a bad reputation in the Senate & that is why he is not focusing on his work at the Senate. In the paper it states Kerry had an affair while he was still married to his first wife Julia Thorne, for 2 yrs. That is why he does not want his divorce uncovered. He has done everything he can to cover his ex-tramarital affair. Even the Democrats don’t want another Clinton-like in the Whitehouse. I believe Hillary has put Kerry there so he loses & She can be the Democrat-Comeback WINNER in 2008.

Comment by Donna in San Antonio TX · 08/ 8/04 04:43 AM
7  Reid wrote:

Donna, I hardly know what to say in reply. I have to assume things must be very different in San Antonio than they are in Atlanta. Here, we don’t live in fear that “they come her in bigger groups we will have to hide (men in their long robes) women in the berkas so we are not shot in the streets!”

When you say, “The sooner we get rid of the crazy Muslims the better we are going to be. they even still teach their children to lie & Kill everyone they feel is an infidel” ... are you basing this on your personal knowledge of the majority of the 1.2 billion Muslims on this planet? Or is this simple broad brush bigotry, sort of like “everyone from Texas is a redneck cowboy”? Are you advocating killing all those people because of their religion? Because that would make you just like Osama bin Laden, who wants all Christians and Jews subjugated or killed, simply because of their religion.

It sounds to me like you have become the very thing you hate.

And if you want to get “Biblical,” let the person with the perfect past (i.e., not Bush) throw the first stone.

Comment by Reid · 08/ 8/04 11:10 AM
8  emcee fleshy wrote:

rturner: “when a candidate comes along who seems perfect . . . (Goldwater, McGovern)”

Goldwater and McGovern?

Comment by emcee fleshy · 08/ 9/04 06:09 PM
9  rturner wrote:

Uh…both parties were much different back then. I was glued to the ‘64 Republican Convention, even though I was way too young to vote.

5 years later I ran into Senator Goldwater on the steps of the US Capitol during a protest march that had turned ugly and a few of us were trying to get away from the tear gas. He came running at my friends and I shaking some kind of stick (a cane?) and yelling “get the f—- outta here!”

I stood my ground and said, “Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice.” He kind of went, “huh?!” and I lied, “I voted for you in ‘64”. His eyes narrowed and he said, “Bah!!” and stormed off. I called after him, “you were my hero”. I think I heard another “Bah!”.

Comment by rturner · 08/ 9/04 09:26 PM
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