Oh come on. We don’t have any evidence that Kerry engaged in any kind of widespread torture or gratuitous murder in Vietnam (other than his own statements to Congress concerning the “atrocities” that supposedly all the troops were involved in there).

I agree, however, that his appeasing and reactionary attitude regarding the war is unacceptable. It will put the US back on the defensive and that is not the way to fight this conflict.

Have any of you heard of ‘hearsay’? Have any of you any idea the difference between opinion and informed opinion? Apparently not, or you could not speak so ignorantly, loosely, absent any understanding about people, human nature, politics, Vietnam or John Kerry. John Kerry did not have any connection to the Kennedy’s, nor was he a rich kid; but he was a bright young man with a sense of obligation and duty. Geo. Bush WAS a rich kid, a spoiled rotten one, drunk, vulgar, loud, wild from Texas. Kerry was a scholar-athelete who then joined the Navy and volunteered for Active Duty at a time when Vietnam was the litmus test of character. That action, at age 22, defines his extraordinary courage and character. Geo. Bush’s action defines his. Bush was, and is, a frat-boy screw-up who could only be a ‘cheerleader’, not even play the game. He pulled strings to AVOID doing his duty and going to Vietnam, ‘protecting’ Alabama and Texas from Communists, while Kerry protected the Mekong Delta. Mr. Cheney with his five deferrments despite being a hawk even then, is worse. That, it should be clear to even the dullest, defines their character; which is to say they have no character.
Bush has involved us in an unjustified war with terrible consequences because he knows absoloutely nothing about war. He has no judgement or experience because he has no experiences; he was a playboy. John Kerry knows just what war is and what happens in it, because he was in war; he was there. He also knows how important stategic alliances are, since he grew up with a State Department official for a father. Bush’s dad was the CIA director, who’ll’d be teaching an entirely different lesson about secrecy and strategy.
One knows what he’s doing, the other does not. Guess which one? The answer is too obvious. But I’m sure the American people will be able to figure it out. Like his father’s, Geo W.’s will be a failed one term Presidency. John Kerry will be one of the best Presidents we’ve ever had in the history of the nation. Geo. Bush, on the environment, taxes, and overseas, has been one of the worst.

Would you mind elaborating on that? I hear people say it a lot but I have yet to hear anything resembling a coherent argument for it.

Why does it matter that Kerry was in Vietnam and Bush wasn’t? Bush was in the Air National Guard at the time, serving out his term honorably as a fighter pilot (which is a damn difficult job to get — you have to be good at it).

But I don’t see what bearing it has on the ability to be President of the United States.

G.W.B. was being protected, so what if Kerry himself was an easier ride due to connections, he still could have gotten killed down there while this other moron stayed away from harm.