James Joyner reports that 60 Minutes is going to air yet another story on Bush’s Air National Guard service. James rightly note the following:
I fail to see how any of this, even if all the participants are to be believed and no effective rebuttal is offered, hurts George W. Bush. His life story is pretty well known; indeed, even his daughters joked about it the other night at the convention. He was a mess as a young man–a guy interested primarily in partying and getting wasted. He grew up, found a good woman, found Jesus, and got off the bottle. He got past his early troubles and, as Zell Miller might say, done good. He got elected governor a couple times and then got elected to the White House. His case for re-election isn’t built on what kind of guy he was in 1968 but rather on the last four years.His opponent, conversely, is hoping people forget that he had a career after those weeks in Vietnam. The reason the Swift Boat ads hurt so much isn’t that people so much care about what kind of lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry was but rather that that’s the man’s entire case for being president.
The bottom line is that the incumbent runs on what kind of President he has been–and voters evaluate an incumbent in precisely that way. Meanwhile, the challenger runs on what kind of President he might be, which is based on projections that are based on the summation of the life experiences of that candidate. As such, all the early 70s talk has far more potential harm for Kerry than it does for Bush.
Further, Kerry himself has decided that somehow all voters need to know about him are the 4.5 months he spent in Viet Nam–the fact that he avoids susbtantial discussion of any other aspect of his ife underscores the high stakes involved in any discussion of the 1966-1972 period.
It’s truly kind of you to defend Clinton, even at this late date. If the incumbent simply ran on what kind of President he has been and the challenger on what kind of president he might be, we might never have had Whitewater.
Comment by Nathan Callahan — Thursday, September 2, 2024 @ 1:16 pm
The only way this would make any difference would be if something surfaced that clearly showed GWB had skipped out on his Guard obligation. Not that I’m claiming he did - just that, if it was proven, that might introduce a new dynamic.
Comment by Harry — Thursday, September 2, 2024 @ 7:49 pm