The Republican slime machine has to go back thirty years to attack John Kerry. They are forced to rely on lies, misrepresentations, and outright unproven slander from John O'Neill and the Swift Liars group. Some on the left have called for Kerry to push the "Bush-as-AWOL" story as retaliation.
I disagree.
First, attacking Bush's AWOL record allows the press to say that both sides are engaged in the same dirty tactics, even if our claims actually have documented proof.
Second, it's pretty common knowledge that Bush avoided Vietnam and then had a poor attendance record in the Air National Guard. Unfortunately, people don't really care. Of the many faults in Bush's record, this is one of the least important.
Third, we don't have to go back thirty years to attack Bush's record. The last four years give us more than enough ammo. The election will be a referendum on Bush as President, not Bush as National Guardsman. Let's hit him where it hurts, on relevant issues where the facts speak for themselves:
- IRAQ -- Choose your poison: WMDs, lack of allies, quagmire, no exit strategy, terrible postwar planning.
- WAR ON TERRORISM -- Failure to fund homeland defense, failure to guard ports and borders, failure to focus on Al Qaeda, failure to stop Iran and North Korea from building nukes.
- ECONOMY -- Worst jobs record in seventy years, record budget deficits, tax cuts for wealthy stockholders while companies ship jobs overseas.
- HEALTH CARE -- Higher premiums, lower benefits, high drug costs, failure to implement any reforms aimed at broadening access to uninsured AND lowering costs for the middle class.
- ENVIRONMENT -- Bush has done nothing to promote renewable energy, record high gas prices, exploitation of national parks for big corporations, weakened air quality rules for polluters.
These are issues where we can win. Left wing partisans may care about Bush's National Guard record, but most Americans care about his record as President. Since he has the worst record in American history, let's use it against him.