Reply #5: I think the thing about the supposed [View All]

[SheilaT]

relationship with the AP reporter was just a small preview of what may come. Not to suggest they'll simply try to portray Kerry as a philanderer. But as much dirt, innuendo, and outright lies will be tossed out. Anything to take the focus off Bush's actual record as president.

The truth is that no potential nominee out there is completely free of flaws or immune to attack campaigning. All that matters is who is the nominee, and then the attack dogs of the Bush administration will tailor their attacks for that guy.

Now I am absolutely not a Kerry fan, and I'm not at all impressed with his record or his potential as president. But I don't care about his personal life, only if he'll be a better president than Bush. I laugh at the attempt to smear him by calling him just another Massachusetts liberal. Hell, he's no where near liberal enough for my taste! And to try to make him out as unpatriotic because he protested against the Vietnam war is equally silly. Personally, the fact that he'd already served honorably in Vietnam before he protested makes absolutely no difference to me, I'm just glad he finally understood the war was wrong.

In short, what's come out so far has nothing to do with why I don't care for him (it has to do with the fact I think Dean would be a better candidate) and NOTHING that comes out, true or otherwise, will make any difference to me. And I'm quite sure that the Kerry supporters feel much the same way.

However, if we let the Republican smear campaign frame the debate during the coming campaign, we'd be making a huge mistake. The entire dialog needs to be about Bush's failures in every area of his administration, and what our nominee would do to set them right.