The Kerry Files, Part 3 [Hugh Hewitt]

The Daily Standard ^ | 2/26/04 | Hugh Hewitt

[areafiftyone]

THERE ARE A COUPLE of key pieces of conventional wisdom floating downstream from Washington these days. The first is that a Bush-Kerry race will be very, very close. Bush-Gore close.

The second is that Senator Kerry's anti-war radicalism following his return from service in Vietnam shouldn't--and won't--be an issue in November.

You can believe one of these views, but you cannot hold on to both. If the election really will be a replay of 2000, then every issue that moves even handfuls of voters matters a great deal.

Examples: Florida went for Bush by less than 600 votes, which means that any issue that could change 300 minds flips Florida from red to blue. Iowa went for Gore by 4,144 votes. If Kerry's radicalism still rankles with 2,075 Gore voters, then Iowa slides into the red column.

The preliminary evidence I have gathered via a playing on my radio show of the audio of Kerry's April, 1971 appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee indicates that a large part of the public is very interested in what Kerry did, and that the vast majority of that group holds him in deep contempt because of his actions, and that most of that majority are retired or active duty military. Kerry has his defenders in the military and among the veterans, but everything I have heard or read tells me that the men and women who have worn or are wearing the uniform view Kerry's antiwar activities as profoundly wrong and disqualifying for the presidency.

Kerry's rather desperate posturing on his past radicalism tells us a lot. He wants to turn every question into an attack on his patriotism, a transparent and ineffective dodge. His letter to President Bush earlier this week was also full of the worn melodrama that does not address the crucial aspect of his radical days. "As you well know," Kerry messaged the president, "Vietnam was a very difficult and painful period in our nation's history, and the struggle for our veterans continues. So it has been hard to believe that you would choose to reopen these wounds for your personal political gains."

Of course the president has done nothing of the sort, any more than Dick Cheney has challenged Kerry's patriotism, which was another of Kerry's erratic charges this week.

What is happening is the inevitable eruption of disgust from Vietnam-era soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. More than 2 million men and women served in the Vietnam theater. More than 50,000 died there. Every single one who returned and all who died have families that were directly impacted by the war--mothers, fathers, children, siblings. The number of Americans directly impacted by Vietnam must number over 10,000,000. In American politics, that's a significant number.

Then there the current members of the military, their families, and their supporters. Does Kerry's history matter to them? There is no way to know for sure, but any reasonable observer has to admit that a close election will make this issue among these voters a salient topic.

Some have argued that Kerry's past is past and anyway, Americans vote their futures. Historically, of course, that isn't correct, as Bloody Shirt elections and Watergate babies attest. There are plenty of pundits who would prefer that we not look back at Kerry's votes against the B-2, the Abrams tank, the Patriot missile, the Aegis cruiser and land-based missile defense, much less his salad days with the radicals of the early '70s. In Kerry's testimony to the Senate, he spoke approvingly of the "Indian nation of Alcatraz," the band of radicals who had occupied the island in San Francisco bay--a jarring reminder of the politics of those unhinged days. Kerry was very much a part of the strange doings of those years; there are great numbers of Americans who haven't forgotten.

[RaceBannon]

major bump

[sauropod]

..."Some have argued that Kerry's past is past"

Oh no its not.

[areafiftyone]

Its amazing how Kerry whines about Bush bringing up his past when he was the one who did it in the first place by bragging about his Vietnam duty. Now he is going to have to pay the piper for it. He is still using his Vietnam record for his campaign. He just released a new video with Max Clealand in it!

[atomicpossum]

..."Some have argued that Kerry's past is past"

And that Bush's past is questionable.

Of course, these people were Kerry and his dimwitted minions.

[sauropod]

I intend to have Red Kerry choke on his past.

[areafiftyone]

Sorry - by video I meant Ad. Its on his website.

[tinamina]

I saw Peter Paul and Mary on TV the other day. They are actively campaigning for Kerry and the song they played was "Have you been in jail for Justice? Then you're a friend of mine."
I hope they continue to be active for Kerry and are seen on TV singing that song in relation to Kerry, because that will give people notice of who he is.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping.

Kerry's past since he assumed the Benedict Arnold role after his return from Nam is very valid yesterday,today and for tomorrow.

Our country will not survive if he is elected.

[Grampa Dave]

Your comment would make a great tag line for you:

"I intend to have Red Kerry choke on his past."

[sauropod]

Done. ;-)

[areafiftyone]

Hey maybe they Kerry can get the Smothers Brothers too for his encore.

[cwb]

Supposedly, he IS going to be running TV ads next week with the Republican-Vet he saved in Vietnam. It is definitely, Kerry who is making the past, the present.

[bondjamesbond]

Kerry was a LT in Vietnam 30 years ago. Everything he has done since that time has shown, again and again, that he is not suited to the job of President of the United States.

Bush has been the wartime Commander in Chief for the past three years. Everything he has done in that time has shown him to be the right man in the right place at the right time to be President of the United States.

Which man's military experience is more relevant to this election?

[NYCVirago]

I saw Peter Paul and Mary on TV the other day. They are actively campaigning for Kerry and the song they played was "Have you been in jail for Justice? Then you're a friend of mine."

Peter Yarrow was arrested, alright, for "taking immoral liberties" with a 14-year-old girl! Isn't it great that he's a friend of Kerry?

[Grampa Dave]

As I commented on another thread, that is a great tag line.

I might have to "borrow" it from time to time. :)

[BushisTheMan]

Someone needs to investigate the so-called Republican Vet he savedin Vietnam.

Did this guy just come out of the woodwork and realize that Presidential candidate Kerry is the guy who saved him? Where has this guy been for the last 20 years that Kerry has been in the public eye.

Something stinks here.

[Verginius Rufus]

This assumes that the official vote counts in 2000 really reflect how people voted. Bush carried Florida by 537 votes, but probably there were 50,537 more people who voted for him than voted for Gore...the Democrats stole or stuffed 50,000 votes but underestimated how many would be enough.

[Jammz]

"Then there the current members of the military, their families, and their supporters. Does Kerry's history matter to them? There is no way to know for sure, but any reasonable observer has to admit that a close election will make this issue among these voters a salient topic."

This I will say. The majority of military members, their friends and family who know what Kerry did after the war, will not vote for him. NO WAY. Democrats are notorious for eroding our benefits and something like this will compound the problem. How would you like to serve under someone who's ideas about the military prompted him to protest so blatantly? I don't think many would. If you'd like to save some money, then elect Kerry. I'm sure he'll reduce the military down... He won't even have to sign anything. Just him being in office will probably be enough to push many members out the door. Especially us older ones.

To Senator Kerry I ask you this. What would you do to our military? We already do more with less, would you like us to do everything with nothing? The world is a safer place due to our military doing what they do. Don't ruin it or you won't have a military left. Remember our contracts range from 2 (yes they have 2 year contracts now) to 6 years. When they expire, try to make us stay in.

[RonDog]

From www.weeklystandard.com:

The Kerry Files, Part 3
Is the emerging conventional wisdom on the 2004 election bunk?
Will Kerry's Vietnam radicalization matter?

by Hugh Hewitt
02/26/2004 12:00:00 AM

www.HughHewitt.com
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