How Kerry Should Have Responded

Now I do not make any secret of the fact I dislike John Kerry. I believe his admitted war crimes Vietnam and his post-Vietnam actions and writings constitute aid and comfort to the enemy and render him Unfit for Command, as the Swift Boat Heroes state. The Democrat's decision to threaten legal action to silence the members of his former unit only adds to that impression.

Now comes the Kerrey with brains, the one who is the real war hero -- former Senator Bob Kerrey. Rather than fulminate and hit his opponents with brown books full of smears, Kerrey actually lays out a case why John Kerry is fit for the office of commander in chief. I don't particularly agree with him, based upon the reasons I outlined above, but he does make some legitimate points. And rather than demand that the opposition be silenced, Bob Kerrey acknowledges that the ads are legal and no different in kind or quality from those of left-leaning 527 groups. And he is willing to let the American people decide for themselves what is accurate and relevant (though he does slip in a call for more speech regulation under the guise of campaign finance "reform").

That is what John Kerry should have done. If he had nothing to hide and a substantive record to run upon. That the Kerry campaign chose otherwise demonstrates that the candidate has something to hide and little (if anything) in the way of national security credentials to run upon.