Free Republic

Can John Kerry hold on to his lead? Harold Wilson, that British politician more canny than admired, usefully reminded his audience that things can change very quickly in politics. "A week is a long time," he said, in politics, and we have seen this over and over in the American scene these past months. After all, only nine weeks ago former vice president Al Gore blessed the insurgent campaign of Howard Dean and most pundits thought the race was over. All that was needed was the anointing of the former Vermont governor as Democratic party standard-bearer to take on US...

[The source URL above will most likely expire.] Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, chief of naval operations in Vietnam, prophesied that John Kerry's career there would come back to haunt him.The prophesy has come to pass.On May 4, a remarkable, though underreported, press conference took place at the National Press Club in Washington announcing the formation of a new group: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Its mission: To set the record straight about Sen. John Kerry's service in Vietnam and the accusations he made against his fellow soldiers after returning to the states. Swift boats — small, mostly aluminum vessels — were...

"Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, told me — 30 years ago when he was still CNO —that during his own command of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam, just prior to his anointment as CNO, young Kerry had created great problems for him and the other top brass,by killing so many non-combatant civilians and going after other non-military targets.‘We had virtually to straitjacket him to keep him under control,’"