Kerry hurts only himself by bringing up Vietnam

Kerry hurts only himself by bringing up Vietnam

Date published: 9/1/2004

John Kerry made a fatal mistake in his acceptance speech. He focused his whole campaign on his four-month Vietnam experience; he touted his medals and his bravery in battle then in his books and on political stages, as a reason for his presidential bid.

This, in spite of his anti-Vietnam War stance after that war, including his medal-discarding prank and his anti-military bashing talks to Congress.

However, as usual with Kerry, his "makeover" now falls flat. Heavily criticized by Swift Boat vets who served with Kerry in that dangerous time and place, Kerry in turn criticizes these same comrades-in-arms as Kerry-bashing, pro-Republican "smear-mongers." (By last count, a small minority of the "Swifties" are pro-Kerry; the majority of "Swifties" are "smear-mongers.")

Now, feeling the heat, Kerry's minions--and most of the mainstream liberal media--are trying to deflect Kerry's misguided focus into a failure by Bush to stop these attack ads against Kerry.

After all, Kerry has no courageous history as Gov. Michael Dukakis' second-in-command, and nothing to say about his 19-plus years in Congress.

Yet, Kerry is what Kerry is: a flip-flopper.

Leonard J. Malinowski

Spotsylvania

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Date published: 9/1/2004