I truly believe that by now Kerry truly believes he was a war hero.
He was...for the North Vietnamese Communists.
Cordially,
Kerry is truly stupid and was duped by his own party.
The Democrats are truly an "anyone but Bush" party, but Kerry was unable to see this. He thought that the emotion from the Dems was for Kerry the candidate. He therefore thought they were embracing his war-hero claim, so he based his campaign on such.
The Democrats so badly wanted to get a ride to the whitehouse, any ride, that they failed to lift the hood and kick the tires of the car they were buying. Now, saddled with a lemon, they suffer from buyer's remorse.
Kerry's blindness to his party's hate of GWB has been his downfall.