Democratic front-runner John Kerry – whose campaign platform is most notable for its total lack of a platform – is raising questions about President Bush’s military service in the National Guard during the Vietnam war.

“Just because you get an honorable discharge does not in fact answer that question,” the Massachusetts senator said.
Kerry insisted he was not making a political issue of Bush’s Vietnam-era service, saying he had no trouble with the “many people” like Bush who served in the Guard to reduce the odds of seeing combat in Vietnam.

But he responded sharply to Bush’s claim in a nationally televised interview that his honorable discharge from the National Guard should answer lingering questions about his service.

Wait… didn’t this very same issue get raised (repeatedly) – and put to rest – already? Next thing we know, Kerry will be protesting that he can’t run against Bush because Gore “won” the election, making a Kerry-Bush race moot.

UPDATE: Curious, isn’t it? After all, it was John Kerrey who said, during the 1992 race for the Democratic nomination:

The race for the White House should be about leadership, and leadership requires that one help heal the wounds of Vietnam, not reopen them; that one help identify the positive things that we learned about ourselves and about our nation, not play to the divisions and differences of that crucible of our generation.
We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways.

Sunday, February 8th, 2004, 10:51 am   |   Politics Bite  |  RSS feed Comments and pings are currently closed.