September 01, 2004

WILL HE APOLOGIZE? John Kerry speaks today before the national convention of the American Legion.

UPDATE: John Kerry's "Houston Moment". Quotable:

Forty-four years ago, Kerry's idol, John Kennedy, traveled to Houston to convince a gathering of Southern ministers that a Massachusetts Catholic could be President. Today, the new JFK has to convince skeptical Legionnaires that a Massachusetts liberal is fit for the job ..

Since the VFW convention, Kerry has absorbed two weeks of brutal personal attacks by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Their newest ad recalls how Kerry once tossed away his military decorations.

The campaign by the Swifties has made a shambles of the war-hero strategy launched at the Democratic convention. Kerry's Swift boat was supposed to speed through the political waters at full steam. Instead, it is foundering. He has been forced to retract his legendary Christmas-in-Cambodia epiphany, and he's under pressure to release his official military records and Vietnam diaries. Most Vietnam vets don't believe that he lied about his military service, exactly, but they are no longer sure he was telling the whole truth, either.

What they are sure of is that Kerry once attacked their war as a criminal enterprise and threw away his decorations. "How can the man who renounced his country's symbols now be trusted?" asks the ad.

UPDATE: NO APOLOGY FROM KERRY in today's American Legion speech. Instead, Kerry used his time to attack George Bush's conduct of the Iraq war -- and promise large spending increases for veterans and the VA. I.e. politics as usual.

Here are Kerry's remarks. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack