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Well, the Dems couldn't have screwed this up any worse if they tried.
Bush is vulnerable on so many things that are COMPLETELY his fault: lying us into war, ruining the economy and the budget, trashing the Constitution, raping the environment.
So, what are we talking about?
Divisive crapola from 35 years ago. Viet Nam is like the Civil War - you are never going to get the losers to admit they were wrong.
It is already a masterstroke of confusion to co-mingle the totally illegitimate Iraq war with an equally illegitimate earlier war that the Right Wing Re-write Machine has had thirty years to transform into the American equivalent of the "stab in the back" lie that the Nazis used to excuse the Wehrmacht's bloody failure in WW1.
From a one-sided no-brainer of a moral choice, we are moved into a murky world of John Kerry's many careers: soldier, war protestor, CIA critic, liberal senator, waffling enabler of the IWR.
We are talking about @#$%^ Jane Fonda (aka Hanoi Jane) instead of the lying, looting, layoff-happy Bush.
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Now, it is clear that John Kerry wanted no part of this. He tried to duck the whole fuss when Michael Moore brought it up. But, the corporate media suddenly decided this had legs, unlike four years ago when they buried it. Whatever the corporate media is doing, the context is too bloody confusing for me to sort out.
Is it pre-emptive damage control (get the AWOL charge out front, then declare it irrelevant and move on)? Is it a gambit to make the last 35 years of Kerry's career fair game? Is the Hanoi Jane thing a gambit to re-energize the Angry White Man vote? Or,
<tin foil> the media wants Bush out without upsetting all the corporate mega profits. So have the election on this tangential trivia; let Kerry win as long as he doesn't rock the boat. </tin foil>
The context is moving faster than any outsider can track.
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What a mess. And still the DLC wants to anoint Kerry. Let's just all wait and see how he handles this mess, plus the Massachusetts Gay Marriage brawl.
Its Mr. Kerry's turn to take a spin in the barrel and a swim in the shark tank. If he's as good as his supporters say he is, he will emerge unscathed. And unbelievers will have some tangible reason to get on the bandwagon.
arendt
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