The Quagmire

More than 30 years later Vietnam has become a quagmire again - this time for the Kerry campaign. It is a quagmire mostly of their own making.

At the DNC in July, Kerry made his 4 months in Vietnam the cornerstone of his candidacy. This almost immediately became a problem for him as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth came out en mass against him. The Swift Boat Vets forced Kerry into an interview embargo because the candidate didn't want to have to answer embarrassing questions (like why he lied about being in Cambodia on Christmas or why he lied about a Silver Star with a "V" or was his first Purple Heart the result of an unintentional self-inflicted wound?).

Now, even though President Clinton advised Kerry to move away from the subject of Vietnam, the campaign is stuck on the subject again. This time the subject is forged documents that were supposed to show that President Bush shirked his duty during Vietnam. The smear backfired - most notably on Dan Rather and CBS (I haven't seen a person's reputation plummet this fast since Pee Wee Herman) but also on the Democrats and the Kerry campaign by association.

The only thing now more pathetic than seeing Terry McAuliffe attack the President based upon forged documents is seeing Senator Tom Harkin do the same. Yet this is the course the Democrats seem to have charted for themselves. It's baffling!

The average person sees Terry McAuliffe and first wonders who he is - then they wonder why he's so angry. Doesn't McAuliffe know that the average voter doesn't care about what happened 30 years ago? Wasn't he in charge when draft dodger Clinton was elected? Can he possibly be this dense?

(As an aside - when I see Terry McAuliffe ranting at a podium - I am always struck by how much he looks like the Tony Goldwyn character from Ghost - except with curly hair. I watch the press conferences half hoping an invisible angry Patrick Swayze starts to smack him around.)

The second half of the Democrats un-dynamic duo attack squad is Senator Tom Harkin, who like President Bush flew jets during the Vietnam war. The only two differences being that Harkin flew his jets in Japan not Texas and Harkin went around lying about flying combat missions in Vietnam. This is the guy sent out to attack Bush?

Why are they doing this? What possible good can it do them? Can't they see they are walking into a trap of their own making?

Let's take a look at these three questions.

Why are they doing this? Well they can't campaign on being tougher on the War on Terror because Kerry doesn't even have a position on Iraq and half his base is pushing for immediate withdrawal. They can't campaign on Kerry's Senate record because he doesn't have one (unless you want to make voting against the military and for Earth Day celebrations the cornerstone of the campaign). They can't really campaign on the economy when unemployment hovers around 5.5% and homeownership is at record levels.

That leaves Vietnam - and since campaigning on Kerry's service record backfired - why not try campaigning against Bush's service record?

What possible good could it do them? Well the campaign has reached the "can't make it any worse" stage and losing with dignity seems to be out as a option.

Can't they see they are walking into a trap? I'm not sure about this. Maybe they feel they have no choice. Maybe they are too dense to see the traps.

What are the traps you ask? Well let me tell you.

The Bush campaign would be happy if Vietnam and peripheral issues remain at the forefront and so far the Kerry campaign has been accommodating. You just know that Bush has a complete timeline documenting his service in the Texas Air National Guard along with records and eye-witnesses. When the campaign plays that card you can be sure that they will also make a big issue out of Kerry not releasing his military records yet. If it turns out that war-hero Johnny asked for 4 deferments and yet has attacked Cheney for taking 5 - then the jackass will be the campaign mascot in more ways than one. (My guess is what Kerry is really afraid of is the fact that he recommended himself for all those medals - that's not kosher and he knows it. Makes him look like Frank Burns.)

The Kerry campaign is falling way behind and they know that their big hope is to damage Bush in the debates. They have asked for weekly debates but right now it looks like there will be three (with one Vice-Presidential debate). One of those three debates is supposed to be moderated by CBS's Bob Schieffer but since CBS so obviously tried to smear Bush with those fake documents - maybe the Bush campaign just says "cancel that one". Maybe the Bush campaign says they will only go ahead with that debate if CBS makes a full apology and makes a full disclosure. That would be a thing of beauty. CBS would be a humble bumble and the story of the deceit would be "the story" for at least a week (preventing Kerry from making any progress) plus Schieffer would have to be extra careful at the debate because he would be under intense scrutiny for any bias whatsoever.

Then we have the medical records. Given the fact that Kerry is a cancer survivor and the fact that the much younger Clinton just underwent heart surgery - what possible reason can Kerry give for not releasing his medical records? Have fellow cancer survivor Rudy Guilianni hammer away on this. Something tells me that if the records are released - then people will be taking about Thomas Eagleton and modern parallels.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. The only thing for sure is that this is a quagmire for the Kerry campaign right now.