Where's the Outrage? (Eleanor Clift)

[Bush was AWOL]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6030085/site/newsweek/

[question everything]

1. Put some text, please

Sept. 17 - It's like that television ad, "Another loan lost to Ditech." From the Kerry campaign's perspective, this was another week lost to the Republicans. George W. Bush's proven failure to fulfill his National Guard duties was widely reported, but because of CBS's flawed journalism, the GOP was able to shift the story away from Bush's credibility to Dan Rather's.

"Score it as a loss for Kerry and as a loss for the liberal news media," says pollster John Zogby. "It's amazing how Fox is the tail that wags the dog. Fox, Drudge and Limbaugh are in the driver's seat." Zogby attributes much of Kerry's slide in the polls to discouraged Democrats moving into the undecided column. "I've never seen a situation where a candidate has de-energized his own base," says Zogby. "He's not saying anything his own base needs to hear."


(snip)

The controversy over the memos overshadowed what is known about Bush's Guard service, or lack thereof. First, Bush needed political pull to land a coveted spot in the Texas Guard. Former Texas House speaker Ben Barnes, a Democrat, told Rather that he helped Bush at the request of a Bush family friend, that he did it for countless other well-connected young men and that he regretted it. Secondly, we know Bush didn't show up in Alabama when he was supposed to. There's a $50,000 reward for anybody who can vouch for him, and nobody has stepped forward. Third, The Boston Globe revealed that Bush never reported for Guard duty in Boston as promised when he attended Harvard Business School. Lastly, Killian's secretary, Marian Carr Knox, says the content of the disputed memos is true even if the memos were forged.