Thursday, February 12, 2004

That '70s Obsession: Apparently we don't have enough problems to worry about today. Despite the war on terrorism and exploding budget deficits, the political types are focussing on the 1970s and Vietnam.

The Democrats and news media are taking scant evidence and blowing it out of proportion to accuse President Bush of being AWOL during his time during the National Guard. If you aren't familiar with the arguments, head on over to CalPundit and you'll see post after post about how some document is smudged in a certain way, and how that calls into question all the evidence indicating that Bush served his time and earned his honorable discharge. For added fun, scan the comment section to read all the spewing Bush hatred that's feeding this frenzy.

Republicans counter with an old photo from a Vietnam protest rally featuring Hanoi Jane Fonda standing in front of a crowd of people. In the background you can make out the image of a young John Kerry (standing, I believe, next to Waldo). While Ms. Fonda did some terrible things during that era, the two of them aren't even near each other -- hardly scandalous. Also, Drudge hyped up a quote from Kerry in his mid 20s, saying that he wants to place the U.S. military under the control of the United Nations. Somehow I suspect that in the past 30 years, Sen. Kerry has changed his mind on that issue.

Yes, unfortunately, this is going to be a nasty race after all. While these '70s issues will probably go away in due time, we're getting a taste of the unsubstantiated, exaggerated slander that we'll be hearing through November.