This Kerry thing could and should easily be a huge net positive for Dems.
First. Dems need to stop being defensive every time Republicans distort and lie as part of an attack. Clear your mind of this reactionary angst for just a moment. Is there any possibility that Kerry was actually suggesting that military personnel are less educated or dumber than average Americans? No way. No matter how you feel about Kerry, one thing is for sure - the guy genuinely cares about soldiers and veteran issues. There is no way in hell he would ever belittle those serving in the military. It is clear, "crystal clear" as Kerry would say, that he was poking fun at the level of stupidity and ineptitude of the Bush administration in getting us into Iraq. So, now that we are thinking, we know that Republicans are knowingly and viciously lying about all of this.
Second. Republicans pathetically lie in a desperate and vicious attempt to rally their base. This is the only message that should come out of this matter and this is what every single Dem should be saying right now. Republicans have nothing, absolutely nothing, to run on so they have to pathetically resort to lies to fabricate faux controversies to rally their base this election. This is the same insidious political stuff we've seen from Republicans in the past and Americans aren't going to fall for it this time.
Thrid. McCain is exposed as lying cog in the Republican smear machine. We know the White House is willing to lie about almost anything (i.e., justification for war, adequate responses to natural disasters, illegally exposing undercover CIA agents, etc.). We know that the Republican echo chamber (i.e., Fox and the rest of cable news, pill-popping Rush and the rest of talk radio, the fighting keyboardist, etc.) is willing to repeat the White House lies and participate in the political fraud... but John McCain. Would St. McCain actually do this? Well, my friends, I hate to disappoint all those McCain adorers out there, but I'm afraid it's true. John McCain is a lying scumbag Republican who is willing to say anything and do anything for his own political gain. In this case, cozying up to the Bush administration as a means of engendering goodwill among the fundies is a good enough reason for McCain to engage in hateful and untrue political attacks.
Fourth. Dems attack with truth. We are a reality based Party driven by practical political thinking. We attack George Bush for his incompetence because he and his fellow necons plunged us into war that may go down in history as one of the worst foreign policy disasters in the in the modern history of not just this country, but all civilized nations. We attack George Allen because all evidence supports the facts that he is a bullying racist. You get the point. Republicans, and John McCain, attack with lies. They live in a fantasy world constructed with lies and distortions. This is the only way to make sense of the right-wing ideology that controls every aspect of their governance philosophy.