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August 24, 2004

Help me, I'm melting!

The Kerry meltdown continues apace, with surrogates for the elusive Gallic candidate sallying forth to proclaim the Swift Boat Vets a bunch of lying, partisan hacks, providing vitriolic cover for the Kerry campaign to quietly admit that, well, yeah, Kerry really wasn't in Cambodia when he said he was, and mebbe he really did fire the shot that won him the first Purple Heart, but, did we mention that THOSE SWIFT BOAT GUYS ARE LIARS! GEORGE BUSH, TOO!

The incomparable Mark Steyn writes,

How cocooned from reality do you have to be to think you can transform one of the most divisive periods in American history – in which you were largely responsible for much of the divisiveness – into a sappy, happy-clappy, soft-focus patriotic blur without anybody objecting? Most Vietnam veterans of my acquaintance loathe John Kerry, and, if he wasn't aware of that, he's too out of it to be President.

That can happen to rich guys, particularly touchy, thin-skinned rich guys who prefer to surround themselves with yes-men. Kerry was apparently infuriated by the cool reception he got from a veterans' audience last week. But why would he expect anything different?

And even if he'd never slimed his comrades, there's something ridiculous about a fellow with four months in Vietnam running as Ike, the Duke of Wellington and Alexander the Great rolled into one. On Sunday, after calling on the Senator to apologise to the 2.5 million veterans he slandered, Bob Dole couldn't resist chipping in his own view of Kerry's wounds.

"Here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of," he said. "I mean, they're all superficial wounds." Dole's right arm is withered and useless from wounds received in World War Two, and he never made a big hoo-ha about it in the '96 campaign.

But, more significantly, Dole prizes bipartisan Senatorial chumminess over almost everything, and my guess is he wouldn't be slamming Kerry if he weren't so revolted by the unseemly showboating of this campaign. If Vietnam vets loathe him, World War Two vets seem to think he's a buffoon. Short of reversing over the last 128-year-old Spanish-American War veteran in the retirement home parking lot, it's hard to see how Kerry could more comprehensively diminish his military support.

As they say in Gay Paree, "It is to cry."

Meanwhile, there's more top-notch writing over at PoliPundit, including an interesting piece on Kerry's actions while still an officer in the Naval Reserve.

And, lest you think I was just indulging in a little unfounded Kerry bashing about his supposed war wounds, there is this:

Kerry received a Purple Heart for wounds suffered on December 2nd, 1968. But an entry in Kerry's own journal written nine days later, he writes that, quote, he and his crew hadn't been shot at yet, unquote. Kerry's campaign has said it is possible his first Purple Heart was awarded for an unintentionally self-inflicted wound.

Ed Morrisey pointed the admission out, noting that the Kerry campaign was admitting yet another of the allegations from "Unfit for Command," the book by John O'Neill.

Posted by Mike Lief at August 24, 2004 07:26 PM | TrackBack