[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

Very good analysis. But there are two things overlooked, but I don't really blame you as your wordspace is limited.

First, John Edwards poured the gas on the smoldering embers when he challenged voters to spend three minutes with any of the men who served with Ketchup Boy in Vietnam. The Swifties took him up on that challenge, and it blew up in the RATS faces.

Second, Kerry actually did jump a shark. It was Christmas Day, 1968, and he was windsurfing with a few plumbers and carpenters on the Mekong, about 5 miles inside Cambodia.

[ironman]

Tour of Duty got them fired up. Then the Kerry campaign poured the gasoline on when Rassmann showed up and they put our a press release claiming Kerry was the hero while the other boats bugged out:

"On March 13, 1969, Rassmann, a Green Beret, was traveling down the Bay Hap river in a boat behind Kerry’s when both were ambushed by exploding land mines and enemy fire coming from the shore. Kerry was hit in the arm, while a mine blew Rassmann’s boat out of the water. With enemy fire coming from both sides of the river and swift boats evacuating from the area, Kerry’s crew chose to turn their boat toward the ambush to save Rassmann."
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0117d.html