1. There are a lot of arguments as to why the documents are likely forgeries, and why it is implausible that they would have been typed on some high-end electric typewriter back then.
2. Plausibility considerations won't cut it in today's biased major media environment. There must be a smoking gun, absolutely incontrovertible proof of forgery, in order to have any effect.
3. If forgery is unequivocally proven, it will have a devastating blow-back effect on CBS and the Democrats who are behind the attack on Bush's National Guard record. That's why Bush supporters are so excited about that prospect, not because the contents of the documents are horribly damaging to Bush.
4. The critical clue is the superscript "th", since only a very limited set of electric typewriters could have produced that (only an IBM Executive, based on my skimming of these threads?).
5. It is easily proven (I did it myself as per instructions) that the specific document with the "th" superscript can be exactly duplicated using the default settings in Microsoft Word.
6. If other evidence rules out all possible typewriters from the above point # 4 (such as available fonts), then a smoking gun will have indeed been found.
One thing I noticed (others may have as well...I just haven't seen it mentioned): the "th" on 111th on the heading of the May 4 memo is not superscripted as it is in point number 2.
I can see how that might explain away the use of Word since if Word did it in number 2, why didn't it do it in the heading? On the other hand, you can ask the same question of the typewriter used.
Agreed.
There is not a chance in hell that MS Word from 2004 would create a memo EXACTLY as an IBM typewriter, with or without proportional fonts, would have done in 1973.
Depending on which letter you type and which font, MS Word adjusts the kerning of the letters in front and in back of the letter just typed. It is a dynamic process. Thus, the spacing between 'a' and 'n' in the word "and" is slightly different than it is in "plant". No freak'n IBM Selectric was capable of this automatic adjustment to the front and to the back of a letter.
Anyone who claims that the two could output the exact same letter are full of sh*t. Period.