2000 Cometh Again: Will Kerry Gore Himself?

The day after their candidate roared "Bring it on!" to George Bush to invite  debate of their respective service records, John Kerry's crack advisors and  Democratic Leadership Council consultants snapped into action and...  apologized. Sorry about that whole anti-Vietnam War thing and what I told  the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971. That excessive language,  that impolitic mention of routine atrocities, routinely ordered and carried  out by corn-fed farm boys dropped into the most immoral conflict imaginable.  Poor form on my part to have brought it up. The rashness of youth, and all  that. Now please hand Mr. Rove this large paddle and ask him to wait a  moment while I bend over. Someone thought this was a good idea. Here's the calculus, as transparent as  glass: The left has nowhere else to go. The swing voters must be assiduously  courted. The nation's presumptive pro-military mood must be appeased. So:  Vietnam is retracted. Then the retraction is underscored, as a "defense"  against Republican attack ads consisting of clips from Kerry's principled  testimony against the war. [more ]