I’m going to say this as carefully as I can, because God knows I don’t want to disrespect any of the veterans associated with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. God knows they’ve earned the right to have their say and I am grateful to them for their service to their country. Nonetheless, I think that it’s time for the Swift Boat Vet’s to stop their ad campaign about John Kerry’s deceits and duplicities. The ads have served their purpose.

I agree with the vets; John Kerry is certainly unfit for command. However, I think that there is plenty of evidence to that end in Kerry’s senate record. His four months in Vietnam aren’t relevant beyond the fact that they are the only part of his public life that is (arguably) respectable. Kerry is campaigning on his war record because it’s all he has. He’s trying to distract us. By arguing with him, the Swift Boat Vets are playing into his hands.

I think there are two kinds of potential voters in the country right now, discounting undecideds. Those two types are people who want Bush to serve four more years and people who want ANYONE but Bush to be elected. Neither of these groups is really influenced in any way by Kerry’s war record.

Those of us who want to see Bush reelected don’t really need to be told what a fraud Kerry is. We know it based on his Senate record and his constant waffling. We know it based on his behavior after he came home from the war. We know that voting for Kerry because you believe him to be a war hero is akin to voting for Clinton because you believe him to be a devoted husband. It’s just laughable. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel qualified to say that Kerry didn’t earn his medals and ribbons as respectably as any other fighting man. But I do have the right to say that anyone who comes home and discards those medals, speaks out in an attempt to weaken the war effort, and then spends 20 years in the senate with no firm positions on anything is not presidential material. If Kerry was a genuine hero in the war, I respect him for that and I admire his bravery. In the senate, however, Kerry has been anything but a hero. And he’s fit to be anything but president.

As to the other people, the ones who want anyone but Bush, I don’t think they really care about Kerry’s war record, either. Kerry stood up at the DNC and presented himself as a Vietnam war hero and all his supporters heard him say was “I’m not Bush!” He could have proclaimed himself a hero in World War I … hell, he could have proclaimed himself a hero in the war against tooth decay and all his supporters would have heard was “Vote for me, I’m not Bush!” And that’s all they care to hear. The truth is, they don’t give any more of a rat’s hindquarters about Kerry’s war record than we do.

As far as the undecideds go, I think it’s up to the president now. I hope he knocks it out of the park at the convention and really focuses the attention of the country on the here and now. Vietnam was a painful time, but it exists only in our memory now. Even if it is seared – SEARED – in our minds. We have a war to win in the here and now. It’s a war against one enemy, being fought on many fronts, and it must not be lost. George W. Bush inherited an economic time bomb at home and a foreign policy time bomb abroad from his predecessor. Given time, hard work, and determination, those bombs will be defused and replaced with promise. This is a critical time for the nation. We must move forward, under the guidance of a president who’s earned our trust and respect. We must not be distracted by a candidate with so little to offer that he can only base his campaign on the one time in his life, 35 years ago, when he actually did behave honorably. And although the Swift Boat Vets have every right to take his duplicity personally, we must not be distracted for much longer by their justified indignation.

This is the last time I’ll write about John Kerry’s service in the Navy. I’m through working for free for his hollow campaign.