Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Debate over the 70's hurt Kerry more than Bush

NY Times:

The war over who did what in the Vietnam era rages on in the 2004 campaign. But it has inflicted more wounds on the candidate who saw combat, Senator John Kerry, than the one who did not, President Bush, analysts across the political spectrum say.

While Mr. Bush has faced questions for years over whether he fulfilled his National Guard service, the controversy over the authenticity of documents broadcast by CBS and questioning Mr. Bush's service record has largely inoculated the president from attacks on the issue, strategists say.

Much of the public had already confronted similar questions about Mr. Bush's service during the 2000 race, and voters judge incumbents far more on their time in the White House than on personal history, so the issue was already a hard sell. The war over who did what in the Vietnam era rages on in the 2004 campaign. But it has inflicted more wounds on the candidate who saw combat, Senator John Kerry, than the one who did not, President Bush, analysts across the political spectrum say.

While Mr. Bush has faced questions for years over whether he fulfilled his National Guard service, the controversy over the authenticity of documents broadcast by CBS and questioning Mr. Bush's service record has largely inoculated the president from attacks on the issue, strategists say.

Much of the public had already confronted similar questions about Mr. Bush's service during the 2000 race, and voters judge incumbents far more on their time in the White House than on personal history, so the issue was already a hard sell.

But when CBS News had to acknowledge its journalism was flawed, it made the issue seem to be the credibility of the media, not the man. And the fact that a CBS News producer had put the source of the documents in touch with the Kerry campaign linked the Democrats, however tenuously, to the embarrassing debacle.

In contrast, Mr. Kerry thrust his decorated Vietnam record to the core of his candidacy to cement the idea that he was tough enough to lead the nation in a post-9/11 world. So the attacks by disgruntled veterans questioning whether he deserved his medals - and questioning his war protests upon returning home - were a serious setback. "Kerry had more to lose and so he lost more," said Frank Luntz, a pollster who works for Republicans and has been conducting focus groups for MSNBC.

...

"Every American now knows that there's something really screwy about George Bush and the National Guard, and they know that John Kerry was not the war hero we thought he was," said Douglas Brinkley, the historian and author of a friendly biography of Mr. Kerry's war years, acknowledging that Mr. Kerry's opponents had succeeded in raising questions about his service.

An interesting acknowledgement from Brinkley. But, phoney heroism is not Kerry's biggest problem, it is his activities as an anti war puke that really turned veterans against him. Kerry has now come home to his roots as an anti war puke who is willing to give Zarqawi what he wants. Only people who want to lose will vote for that.