The Early Days of Flight

Seriously, as a voter I should care because…? Bush hasn’t made his National Guard service the defining characteristic of his campaign, nor has he denied that he was young and irresponsible when he was young and irresponsible.

What’s more interesting is that, given that Bush has been President for the last four years, the Democratic Party could concentrate on that record, or Bush’s service record of thirty years ago. Unless the Party is simply stupid, we can presume that it is concentrating on the one it thinks is most damaging to Bush, which amounts to a strong endorsement of the first four years of the Bush administration. That’s good to know.

On what evidence do you believe Bush hasn’t owned up? He got an honorable discharge and your own chart here shows that he made up his credits. In terms of getting out, the ANG was flooded with combat experienced pilots who wanted slots from the winding down of the US presence in Vietnam. Getting out was easy. Moreover, the honorable discharge which puts the burden of proof on the critics.

As for getting in, there are now witnesses from the time claiming not and Barnes’ tale is hardly more creditable than the CBS documents. Barnes is a long time Democratic Party politician,
the third largest contributor to the Kerry campaign,
wasn’t Lt. Governor when Bush entered the TxANG in 1968, although Barnes claimed he was. Oh, and that whole Sharpstown stock scandal. And this is the primary witness! The “Vince Foster was killed” moonbats would be embarrassed by that kind of evidence. This doesn’t even take note of the fact that Mary Mapes at CBS spent five years hunting this down and in the end had to go with obviously forged documents. That certainly speaks to the strength of her case.

Now, I don’t expect you to change your view on this. I will admit that while the preponderance of evidence is on Bush’s side, it’s not open and shut and Bush has tried to fudge things. What I am asking is that you consider the possibility that the non-hard-core will look at this and give Bush the benefit of the doubt for good reason and not just because they’re brainwashed drones.

You might take a lesson from the Swift Boat Veterans. The arguments about Kerry’s medals falls in this same grey area. Although, as a partisan, I find the accusations more substantial than those against Bush’s TxANG service, I still can’t bring myself to care. Neither could the average voter. And look, that issue has been dropped. It doesn’t get dredged up over and over even after it’s failed because of weak evidence and lack of relevance. Yet the Democratic Party just can’t let the TxANG issue go. Why not? I’d really like to know. If this is Bush’s greatest perfidity then he’s nearly a saint. Have you considered that, and how this obsession might communicate that view to the voters?