Demosophia

Late to the CBS 60 Minutes Party

Or should I say late to the controversy. Drudge seems to have a link to a Weekly Standard article demonstrating that the documents pointing to Bush's unsatisfactory service, are forgeries. (There are links to some of the major players in the blogosphere, but Wretchard has the recent history. Like me, he slept through the whole thing though.) More here and here. (Hat tip: Rusty.

So, it's a hoax, perpetrated either on or by CBS. (Incredibly, it may have been the Kerry Campaign itself who salted the story.) It just shows how sloppy method can let your bias show through, like baby juice in a cloth diaper.

Now, compare all this nonsense to the rigor with which the Swiftvets document their case. O'Neill the other night on O'Reilly was careful not to overstate his case, an object lesson that's lost on the Marxisant left, who never met a fact that couldn't be embroidered. Here's the bottom line:

The President served honorably and competently, but probably not heroically. But his detractors have apparently gone to some significant lengths to put together a fraudulent case that his service was not honorable or competent. In spite of fairly obvious flaws in this case it was given top billing in "mainstream media," as the latter attempted to ride to Kerry's rescue. The President has never made his homeguard service a critical element of his campaign, so it's not surprising that the attacks haven't had much impact. (A just released WaPo/ABC News Poll shows Bush lead of 9 points.)

John Kerry apparently served honorably. He may also have exhibited bravery in combat, but that was apparently not good enough so he seems to have embroidered and exaggerated his service, sometimes wildly (as in the case of the Christmas-in-Cambodia-magic-CIA-hat incident). Kerry's detractors have received precious little unbiased coverage, and mainstream press has allowed Kerry supporters to simply make ad hominem attacks on the Swiftvets without any demand that they supply facts. They have also given undeserved credance to Kerry's claim that Bush is really behind the Swiftvet campaign, but seem to ignore far more extensive connections between Moveon.org and similar "independent" organizations with the Democratic Party machine that are not only "coordinated" but constitute joint activity.

John Kerry chose to make his Vietnam service the very center of his campaign, but now blames others as his campaign heads south to meet up with the Hurricane assembly line.

Now, I'm in favor of some national health plan, but that's about the only reason I can think of that might possibly influence me toward Kerry. That is, it might if we weren't in the middle of a war. And given that these folks are so wrong and so dishonest about damn near everything else under the sun it has occured to me that they may well be wrong about health care too. I mean, what are the odds that they're right about one thing and wrong about everything else?

I've been saying for some time that Bush will win by around 20 points, and I'm stickin' by that prediction. In other words, I don't think Kerry is going to do nearly as well as Michael Dukakis.

Update: Apparently Killian's son disputes the authenticity of the documents on different grounds.

Posted by Demosophist at September 10, 2004 12:24 AM | TrackBack