Horse races and swift boats

Once again, Steve Gilliard is on the ball. I wish I had gotten there first. *pout* But I was talking this whole swift boat thing over with my boyfriend, since he works with a bunch of Fox News-saturated Drudge readers who have been repeating the baseless assertions that Kerry is no hero. (We agreed that the best reply to them would be, "At least Kerry went." Rinse and repeat as often as necessary.) My boyfriend was frustrated that Kerry's people aren't responding to the attacks, which is a stance alot of people take. Hell, I've gone there myself.

But it occured to me while talking about this that Rove is running the exact same campaign against Kerry that he ran against McCain in 2000. It makes sense from his perspective. He sees everything as image and as far as image goes, McCain and Kerry both have the same strengths against specific Bush weaknesses. McCain and Kerry seem straightforward and honest compared to weasel-words Bush. McCain and Kerry seem like courageous war heroes next to draft-dodging, party boy Bush. Rove is a creature of habit. He beat McCain by race-baiting and denying that he really is a war hero, and he's going to whip out the war hero card with the swift boat guys and it looks like they are winding up to race-bait in regards to Kerry's family just like they did to McCain.

It's not going to work this time. For one thing, as Steve points out, McCain is pissed that they are doing this shit all over again, this time to a colleague he clearly respects. And he may jump ship over this issue. For another thing, Kerry's people, if they have any brains at all, have guessed that Rove would pull this crap and they're prepared for it. They're not going to do what McCain did and come back at BushCo swinging. That lost him the primary. They're going to bide their time and let the mean-spirited bullies hang their own selves. It may work, it may not. But it would be stupid not to learn from history and do just what McCain did.