Kerry Backs Off National Guard Attack

Last night, John Kerry urged Terry McAuliffe and other Democrats to stop alleging that President Bush was “AWOL” from the National Guard: “I don’t plan to do that, and I’ve asked them not to,” he said, referring to the attacks.
Now, it certainly could be that Kerry is cynically pretending to take the high road, while letting hacks like McAuliffe and the national press do his dirty work for him. But I suspect that there is some sincerity in his request to back off an “issue” that has blown up like a trick cigar in the Democrats’ faces. I view his request for a cease-fire as evidence that the focus on President Bush’s National Guard service is backfiring: people who follow the “issue” at all closely know that the Democrats’ charges are ludicrous, while the vast majority who don’t follow the issue closely are learning for the first time that Bush was once a highly-regarded fighter pilot. Hence the Democrats’ retreat.