Free Republic

.........Some voters, especially men, will privately welcome a commander in chief who plays rough with his opponents. Mr. Nixon's meanness, it was said, provided an extra measure of safety against the Russians. Maybe, some will think it's a good thing for terrorists to see that Team Bush rolls over anyone who stands in its way, whether Saddam Hussein or Mr. Kerry. But there are distinct and pressing dangers here for Mr. Bush. Remember that in Iraq, he gained the upper hand at first, but the brash, overreaching way he went to war has come back to haunt him in the...

...........The anti-Kerry veterans who have banded together as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth may be sincere in their version of what happened in 1969, but the weight of evidence still supports Kerry's original story. They have caught him in only one, relatively inconsequential untruth — Kerry's claim that he was in Cambodia on Christmas Day 1968. (He now admits that something that didn't happen was "seared" into his memory.) But Kerry has been slow to respond to the allegations, and he's paying a political price. The University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey found last week that 57% of respondents...

Kerry camp's bid to deliver protest letter turned away at Bush's ranch CRAWFORD - The Vietnam attack ad controversy that has increasingly dogged the presidential campaign almost consumed the race Wednesday. Vietnam veteran and former Democratic Sen. Max Cleland traveled to President Bush's ranch, but was not allowed to give him a letter protesting ads challenging John Kerry's military service. Hours earlier, a top Bush lawyer resigned from his campaign after disclosing he had given legal advice to the veterans group behind the television ads. As both sides continued to wrestle over commercials by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Republican...

With a mix of passion and dismay, newspaper editorials are weighing in on the furor over John Kerry's service in Vietnam, with many coming to his defense, a few standing behind his critics and others bemoaning the attention to a 30-year-old war rather than today's problems. Many newspapers used strong language -- smear, deceit-ridden, odious -- to condemn accusations by a group of Vietnam veterans that Kerry did not deserve his medals, that he mischaracterized a mission to Cambodia and that he maligned all the troops with his anti-war comments. "No informed person can seriously believe that Kerry fabricated evidence...

I've had more people chastise me for defending George Bush. They say they should have the right to say what they want about the President and he should not be above criticism. Oh, I get it . . . we should have the freedom to besmirch the President of the United States, but how dare anyone malign John Kerry. John Kerry whines to the President, demanding that he make some war veterans stop talking about him; it's okay to impugn George Bush's name, but not his. Well liberals, you've just shown us your colors . . . yellow, yellow, yellow....

One change voters may have noticed in this year's political campaigns shows up in commercials paid for by candidates. Toward the end of a TV or radio spot, the candidate comes on to identify himself and say, "I approved this message." That development is one of the intended results of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill of 2002. The "stand by your ad" provision makes these declarations mandatory. The idea was to discourage nasty attack ads by forcing candidates to personally endorse everything said on their behalf, making them more accountable for the messages put out by their campaigns and improving...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry argued Tuesday that Americans want a serious discussion of the important issues facing their nation ... while he was appearing on a television comedy show. Ba-dum-bum. So this is why Kerry eschewed traditional news outlets in favor of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"? To go on a fake newscast and make mostly fake news? Certainly it's hard to picture Mike Wallace checking out Kerry's profile in the middle of a "60 Minutes" interview and remarking, as Stewart did: "I'm all Jew. You may be [one-fourth]. I got everything." It's debatable whether...