I find it reprehensible that one who actively dodged the draft, in this case the entire Bush cabal, signed off on the deaths of over 500 and counting daily, soilders. This is an affront to me, since my father and uncles served in Viet Nam, my grandfather served in WWII--and that was when African Americans could not fight with their Caucasian comrades. Both of them spoke of the duty to their country, my dad didn't agree with Nam, but he went anyway. He was drafted.

The name calling and stonewalling and transparent indignation these people show for those who rightly disagreed with them for the phony reasoning disgusts me. We are not safer than we were on 9/11. How does capturing Saddam make us safer from Osama? The mis-speak and the rhetoric is baseless and does a disservice to my father, my uncles, my grandfather, and all VETERANS that served.

How can Clinton be a draft dodger when he (call it what you will) legally got out of serving, and GWB just didn't show for a year and some change. Call a spade a spade. He was AWOL then, and he is AWOL now.

You can challenge my passion or my emotion, but the truth will remain the same. Bush is joke of a leader and he made a mockery of our VETS.

God bless Dennis Kucinich.

He has done a great service for his party.

Kucinich! [RAOTFLOL] No, seriously, that shows some courage of convictions to admit. But I think you're absolutely right here about Kerry. No Dem candidate is free from possible attack. It's as simple as that. The only question is whether they can frame a strong defense. Or rather, as you point out, a defense that deflects the attack back on the attacker. And the simple fact that he is (was?) a war hero is an obvious plus for warding off criticism here. Opposition to the war in Vietnam is a helluva lot more convincing from someone who slogged around in the mud there.

Any of the major candidates (sorry, but I'm only counting Clark, Dean, Edwards, and Kerry) has the potential to beat Bush, provided he can apply the reverse kung-fu grip to the Repub attacks. Kerry's opposition to `Nam fits pretty handily into this scenario.

I think this is a no-brainer. Bush and the cabal are sending soldiers to die every single day in Iraq - a war that they trumped up and pushed upon the public- and this is a conflict that is disturbing more and more Americans as the days go by. It may well prove ruinous in terms of casualties and $$$. Kerry has the best of both worlds, so to speak - he served courageously and then he had the guts to question the war itself.

Now, I think Kerry is a born showboat (as the Doonesbury cartoons from 1971 prove, don't remember where I saw them) but he isn't inflating his service as Bush does.

Over here, real soldier; over there, phony. The public is beginning to tell the difference.

The reason why I respect Clinton for not going to Vietnam is that he did it legally and he did it because he opposed the war and thought it was morally wrong. If you didn't go to Vietnam because of that, I support you, as I support those who believed it was a good fight and backed it up by going over there. Bush, Cheney and the whole GOP/neocon chickenhawk crew wholeheatedly supported the war, as long as it wasn't them doing the dying. That is reprehensible.

It's clear the GOP is terrified of Bush's AWOL status. They're reduced to squawking about "character assassination" and "low politics" (that's rich given what was done to Cleland). If they were so confident that it was a false charge, they would just release Dubya's millitary record transcripts and be done without. The fact that they aren't and are reduced to frantic bleating proves something's wrong and that they're terrified of what that might reveal.

We do all have to thank Peter Jennings for bringing it up. Kind of ironic when (as I've heard) it was just a petty attempt to humiliate Clark, whose buddy Richard Holbrook stole Jenning's wife.

Kucinich is a nice guy and he's defused the Naderites a bit with his run, but he's proved that hobbits can't yet run for president yet. The Shire-folk are still discriminated against.

november,Bartcop has some of those old doonesbury panels in his tuesday issue,had some last week ,too

My only concerns about Kerry have nothing to do with his military service but everything to do with aspects of his Senate service, where he's far more vulnerable to Rove-ian attacks.

If he's smart, he'll have every vote of his carefully chronicled so he can respond posthaste with soundbite explanations and add positives folks can look to.

Ultimately, more folks look at candidates today and tomorrow than yesterday. "Will this guy better life for me/mine/us?" is where most votes go. Those who put huge weight on his past are usually seeking confirmation of their leaning against him to begin with.

Kerry has yet to earn my trust. Voting for war? Did he really think it was a good idea? Why? I'm still waiting for an explanation. Almost 20 years in the Senate and virtually nothing to show for it? Or do the Bushies really have something to tell us about Kerry?

It seems that the *main* thing going for Kerry - from Iowa on - his ability to seem presidential. Well, W seemed presidential to a lot of people. Some basis for making a decision!

This year, anybody can beat Bush. But with Kerry's record of post-vietname public service does not lead me to expect and inspired or courageous administration. I'd love to be wrong. The country is totally screwed up and it really needs an inspired and courageous leader!

I support Dean. I'd have been happy with Kucinich. Thanks to both for having fanned the smoldering embers of the people.

Yuval, I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it here also: Kucinich is the best we have right now. Yes, he is better than Kerry, Edwards, and even Dean. He's the one.

Your proposed Kerry Defense is a good one. Simply take the bull by the horns and say you stood up for what you believed, twice. I am a veteran of the same age as Kerry and do not hold it against him that he came back and opposed the war. It was enough that he was over there and served "in country" when the Republicans of that generation were all avoiding service like the plague...that WILL be held against them. They are well advised not to pay the service card against Kerry, because that invites the whole Chickenhawk anomaly to be brought up. A 60-second ad would do quite nicely with two tables of GOP and Dem leaders presented split-screen with their service (or lack of service) records shown. Cheney Bush Hastert Delay Ashcroft...all would get their service pasts shown. Very enlightening for red-state audiences I would imagine.

Last note, any dem should be ASHAMED to snicker knowledgably about another dem's support of Kucinich, the conscience of our party.

We have Michael Moore and Peter Jennings to thank for putting Bush's National Guard Service (or, lack thereof) before the American people.

I love Dennis, he should be a senator by now and that would help his chances at a run for the presidency.
Ohio is a tough state though and I have heard his name "kicked around" quite a bit. His becoming mayor at 18 really disturbed some of the big boys.
The thing about that election was it came so close afte Kent State. Cleveland's election of Mayor Kucinech made a lot of us young people of the era feel a lot more secure.
Kerry has been attacked as being rich, liberal elite. The thing about them is they often feel no responsibility toward the country using money to get out of the draft and then taxing the average person to pay for huge social programs.
I appreciate what John Kerry has done. After graduating Yale, joining the Navy and going to Vietnam. Here was a real responsible person. He had met President Kennedy at a young age and was one of his biggest fans.
President Kennedy won the 1960 election by a close margin and now republicans and others want us to think he is not highly regarded. Even in postmortem they continue to blast this man with allegations of sexual affairs, and with the most popular and sought after movie star of the age, Marilyn Monroe.
I let them say it, but I don't believe it.
And true to being a young man with liberal politics he opposed the war when he returned, with plenty of ammo for why the war did stink.
I have a high respect for Kerry.
Previously my high was for Jerry Brown's campaign of Planetary Realism in 1976, but it looks like John is going to capture the Democratic nomination and that's half the job there.