492 Is he Nixon? Dean? Edwards? Clark? Gebhardt? Sharpton? Or just plain ol’ 1970s John Kerry?

Kerry’s campaign made Vietnam an issue, and continues to do so. If he’d stepped up to the podium and said, “Reporting for Duty” and then apologized to all the veterans he maligned in the 70s, he’d have gotten the bounce he wanted. These guys are getting old and are willing to forgive and forget. But the wounds he caused are raw and open. Since he became Howard Dean this past week, I don’t know where he’s going now--it’s a crap shoot. Democrats have all their primary candidates rolled into one guy--except maybe Joe Lieberman--depending on the week or month and whether the words are James Carville’s or John Kerry‘s.

The Swiftboat Vets will probably never forgive--O’Neil (who says he would have been voting for Edwards had he been the candidate) debated Kerry 30 years ago and has never backed down--makes the same points today but with more documentation. The Swiftboat Vets 527s are using recordings of Kerry at the hearings, and some left 527s are using recordings of Bush, but far less effectively. Some 527s are just stringing Kerry’s remarks about the war and Saddam in a long series of sound/video bites. Bush has denounced the 527s and Kerry has denounced the publisher of the “Unfit for command” book and demanded that bookstores stop selling it. So much for freedom of speech. Swifties have spent about $500,000 and liberal 527s have spent $63 million. Plus the Dems have that paragon of virtue and character, Michael Moore, playing at first run theaters. For bottom of the barrel advertising, it is the Democrats, hands down.

Now Kerry is repeating history and denigrating our allies, insulting our soldiers and calling the new Iraq leader a liar. He’s hinting at the draft as a possibility. Not a good way to start his administration, if he is going to be the Commander in Chief after January. His billionaire wife calls people she disagrees with “scumbags,“ and tells reporters to “shove it,“ and thinks blacks should support her because she is an “African-American.” We had France and Germany in the coalition for the Gulf War and Kerry voted against it. Last night sound bites on the news had him sounding more unilateral and bellicose than I’ve ever heard from our President. But just days ago he sounded eerily like Nixon promising to get us out of Vietnam and then dragging it out 4 more years. What a team for the White House.

Keep in mind, even if Kerry loses, and I definitely believe he could win, the liberals have won all the wars--presidencies are just battles. Everything the Democrats and I agreed on and supported in the 1970s and 1980s has come about. We parted ways on abortion, but eventually the Republicans will slide into that quicksand too, because they‘ve mimicked their opposition on everything else. I always thought the party that claimed to care about the weakest and poorest, should have stood up for the unborn, but it didn’t.

In my opinion, George W. Bush is far more to the left and liberal than John Kennedy was in 1960--that’s just the movement and direction of the country. I’ve drawn a line in the shifting sand and said I think we’ve gone far enough with the laws on environment, sexual harassment, medical socialism, victimization of every personal problem, and crummy education that demands nothing from the students. Democrats want more laws, I want fewer, or at least I’d like to have the laws on the books enforced (which is what the NCLB was intended to do).