[cjromero]

You're right, Knockwurst, the Swift Boat ads are much worse than the Moveon.org 527's that run ads comparing Bush to Hitler. Or the fact that 85% of the money going to the soft money 527s is going to support ads for the Democrats. Or all of the inaccuracies in Moore's "documentary."

Have you actually seen the ads? The current Swift Boat ad does nothing more than use Kerry's own words against him, as it contains portions of Kerry's testimony from 1971 as they talk to Swift Boat vets, including one man who was in the Hanoi Hilton, and remembers the North Vietnamese piping in Kerry's testimony to their jail cells as a form of torture, to show that Kerry (and presumably America) didn't support what they were risking their lives for.

As I have said in other threads, I am neither a hard core conservative nor a fervent Bush supporter. But when it comes to all this Vietnam stuff, Kerry has no one to blame but himself. It was his decision to make Vietnam, and his service in the war, as the centerpiece of the Democratic convention and his main argument for why he would be an effective Commander in Chief. His acceptance speech was basically, "I was born. I served in Vietnam. I deserve to be President."

The rumors about his questionable medals (and his campaigning for them) had been floating around Washington for years. He had to know that his entire military record was going to be examined with a fine tooth comb, and that his anti-war activities would be criticized.

Personally, I don't think Kerry's activities during and after the war necessarily prevent him from being an effective Commander in Chief, although you can make a credible argument that the Vietnam experience (and the development of his anti-war feelings) has shaped Kerry's views on when it is appropriate to use military force, and his view that America's current foreign policy is too unilateral.