Talk about silver linings.

[Julien Sorel]

Kerry was expecting to take a beating in August, as he hove to for the month saving money, while Bush kept spending up to the convention. But the Swift Boat people have made all ads irrelevant -- everything revolves around them, and the media discussing their ads. This is an order of magnitude or two beyond the impact of campaign ads -- think of how Kerry won the primaries because the media turned to all Kerry, all the time once he won in Iowa. He didn't need to spend nearly as much money as the other campaigns because of all the free publicity.

Kerry comes out of the attacks essentially unscathed, while Bush's millions of dollars of negative ads fall on ears tuned to another wavelength. Assuming the Swift Hoax thing works out the way it looks it will, this has been a gigantic boon for the Kerry campaign. What's that sucking sound you hear? 25+ million dollars in ad spending going down the toilet.

[JI7]

1. and it's no longer just about Kerry's service, but about Bush

turn it into whether Bush is "man" enough to condemn the ads and those running the ads. that should be the focus of the issue now. will bush condemn the attacks. and rightly refer to them as attacks.

[kikiek]

2. Good point. And the ads Bush did have were so weak. Most people

didn't even get the one about having to decide which kid to pick up.

[The Magistrate]

3. Indeed, Mr. Bunter

It is one of the worst mis-calculations by a political campaign in my life-time.

It has opened the field for savage use of the draft evasion and worse indulged in by the enemy leadership: mainstream figures of the caliber of Mr. Phillips have acknowledged as much.

Our radical irregulars can have their field day....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[enigmatic]

4. Gotta agree w/ this...

This was a supreme F U by Rove. In the end, believeing one's own percieved superiority is always a death knell.

[Nay]

5. Ain't it fun to watch them actually drink their own Koolaid??

I have no idea how any sane person working for Bush could trash real war heroes when their own cowardly coke snorter hid in the TANG, and think it would go over well with the masses.

Sure, they trashed McCain in 2000, but that was one Repub against another in an internal party fight. And they trashed Max Cleland, but that wasn't Bush vs. Cleland.