228 ABK--Anybody but Kerry?

“There are, clear across the country, people who sincerely cannot stand the policies or the personality of the president. When they say "ABB" (Anybody but Bush) they say it as if they really mean it. But there are limits, and Mr. Dean managed to find them in only a few weeks of cocky, half-baked and spendthrift posturing. This is not a time when the United States can afford even to flirt with the idea of an insecure narcissist and vain windbag as president. It's good to know that many liberals and leftists recognize that fact and act upon it, even when it costs them something.” Christopher Hitchens, Feb. 11, 2004.

I think it a bit early to say Dean is down and out, or that Edwards is done, however, it’s not too early to raise serious concerns about John Kerry. He flip flops his way through Senate votes and now there is another intern story. This man let down his fellow soldiers ala Jane Fonda, and there are still veterans groups who haven’t forgiven her. According to VietNam Veterans Against John Kerry:

“Soon after Kerry, as a Navy Lieutenant (junior grade) commanding a Swift boat in Vietnam, was awarded the Silver Star, he used an obscure Navy regulation to leave Vietnam and his crew before completing his tour of duty. After returning home, he quit the Navy early and changed the color of his politics to become a leader of VietNam Veterans Against the War. Kerry wasted no time organizing opposition in the United States against the efforts of his former buddies still ducking communist bullets back in Vietnam.”

In their ABB attitude, Democrats are doing all they can to denigrate Bush’s war time service even though in 1992 they (including Kerry) said all that should be behind us (because of Clinton’s exemption and leaving the country). The media bought into the story and repeated it, but now the detractors have been completely discredited including the retired general who is apparently in the early stages of Alzheimer's and isn't remembering much of anything correctly. The other is a left wing wacko who has been writing anti-Bush stories long before he came up with this one.

Bush has co-opted so many of the favorite domestic issues that Democrats usually count on like education, immigration and environment, which leaves only the war--and that is winding down with the possibility of a representative government in Iraq.

Ralph Nadar gave the 2000 election to Bush, and Ross Perot gave the 1992 election to Clinton. Will disaffected Republicans who dislike Bush’s wild spending on bigger and more intrusive government sit this one out, thus handing it to the Democrats?