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Kerry should have foreseen it (Michael Clements, August 07, 2004, Texas City Sun)

What did he think was going to happen?

Democrats, and at least one Republican, are up in arms over an ad put out by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The ad, which has circulated mostly on the Internet and received some airplay on radio, features veterans who claim to have served with Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry during the Vietnam war. The veterans in the ad claim that Kerry has lied about his war record and inflated his actions to receive medals.

Not surprisingly, Kerry’s camp is upset about the ad and some have threatened legal action. Either they are incredibly naive or they believe voters are.

Kerry, as I have heard reported more than once, came back from Vietnam convinced that his military service was nothing to be proud of. He labeled the men and women who served there, including himself, as war criminals. He reportedly threw his medals (or someone’s medals) over the fence at the White House in protest of the war. From what I can gather, he was anything but proud of his wartime service. That is until he decided he wanted to be president.

All of a sudden he has gathered those medals from the White House lawn, dusted off his old 8 mm movies and called up any veteran that will stand by him. Thirty years after he called himself a war criminal, he has changed the label to war hero. It may come as a surprise to Democrats that some Vietnam veterans are a little offended by that.

You get the sense that the Kerry campaign is caught offguard by the sun rising each day.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 8, 2004 7:11 AM