Texas National Guardsmen for Truth
Parie and I were talking this morning and we wondered where's the TNGT group when we need it, pointing out the discrepencies in our President's tenure in the National Guard. But, after daydreaming about it for a bit, I decided that's the wrong way to go. And Josh Marshal of Talking Points Memo agrees:

But fighting fire with fire isn't a compelling message. Nor will getting into a tit-for-tat about what each of these guys was doing in 1969 or 1970 or 1971 win this race for the Democrats.

Look at the wrong direction/right direction poll numbers and you see pretty clearly that the country is looking to fire George W. Bush. The president's only hope is to get the debate on to issues like these, shift the dynamic of the race, and convince voters that, whatever their dissatisfactions with his administration, John Kerry isn't an acceptable alternative.

When this stuff comes down the pike, Kerry has to fight back mercilessly. And he can win those fights. But, fundamentally, every day of this campaign that isn't spent talking about the sluggish economy and the president's debacle in Iraq is a day wasted, a strategic failure for the Kerry campaign.

This is especially true when you see numbers like these, from the latest Zogby poll on battleground states, where many swing states are starting to turn blue. But just barely blue--the numbers, for the most part, are still within the margin of error. Kerry, and progressive voices as a whole, need to keep hammering away at the questionable and failed policies of this administration: from the economy to the environment, from the "tone" of Washington (which W trumpeted he was going to fix back in 2000) to our standing in the world (which contiues to be sullied). And, oh yeah, the fight against global terrorism and a little war in Iraq--those would be good to bring up, too.

The SVBTers have had their time in the national spotlight, and they will continue to fight for more air time. But slowly, the national press is coming around to noting that the "facts" presented by this group and the book, Unfit for Command, are unsubstantiated. I was watching CNN's Newsnight last night, and Aaron Brown had a very good intro:

At some point it has to be about the truth. Veterans groups who have launched attacks against John Kerry have every right to claim he is not fit to lead. They can claim he's a jerk.

They can claim he dishonored fellow soldiers after the war. That is the stuff of opinion and they, like everyone else, are entitled to have their own opinions and entitled to have them respectfully heard.

But, as the late Senator Daniel Moynihan said, you are not entitled to your own facts and facts are where this whole messy affair gets dicey for those who launched the attack.