I think Kerry would have done better to dismiss the swift boat ads as garbage and ignore them rather than cry foul.

The Kerry campaign has benefitted from far more 527 money than the Bush campaign, and has had far more celebrity backing/publicity. F-911 was not condemned by any Kerry parties despite the clear evidence of tampering of media within the film. Some might argue that F-911 is not an ad. You're correct, it was a 2hr movie broadcast on screens worldwide and available for free download, not a 30 second spot 3 times a day in Missouri. It has had a far wider viewing audience than any swift boat ad.

For Kerry to make such a big deal out of it has only driven more people to pay attention and fuel interest in the Swift Boat stories. This is something that will only hurt him more. Of the 300 swift boat vets left, there are only about 3-4 openly supporting him. There are over 200 of them against him. For him to now campaign against the Swift Vets places him back in the familiar role of calling his fellow vets liars, criminals, etc. Shades of 1971, Kerry the protestor - something that the Dems wanted to avoid.

Now that Bush has admonished the 527 ads in general, he has backed Kerry into a corner of sorts. Kerry can either agree that all the ads are bad or say that only the non-Democratic ones are. To admonish them in general is to give up his own advantage. Bush's call for the swift vets to stop also now reinforces the notion that the swift vets do not answer to Bush at all - another consequence that works against Kerry.

In general, this mud slinging only further emphasizes the fact that politics is a rich man's sport. Not just rich, but filthy rich and connected. There is no way an independent could ever hope to run successfully in the future. The Dems have done a pretty good job cutting Nader's legs off before he could even get on the ballot. Is this Freedom?

I don't understand why people attack Kerry on this VN experience.  True, HE brought it up, but he always has the fallback position that many of you dudes take: "I was there, you weren't !"

He is far more vulnerable post VN.  I hope the GOP is waiting until after the convention to 'enlighten' the swing voters.  By harping on VN, valuable time and money is wasted, to say nothing about the wasted fickle attention span of the average American.

Kerry has no distinguishing Senatorial record to brag about, only his 3+1 months in VN. His 3+1 months is the only thing he was able to confabulate a stellar record on, not the 240 months in the Senate. His biggest success was being confused for Bob Kerry as chairman of the senate intelligence committee.

I think the Republicans are laughing all the way to the bank on this deal.  Kerry can't win by running on "I served 4 months in Vietnam" and "I'm not G.W. Bush" alone, and he is wasting precious time, money, and political capital on what has become a quagmire.  Its a quagmire because the Dems thought they could run a war hero for president without the country finding out that the Dems actually hate war heros and the military in general.  You might be able to fool some of the people all of the time, but Kerry is unraveling and he is clearly not in control of the agenda.  He is reacting, always reacting and a step behind, stuck on a fairly irrelevant topic that just won't die, and trying to explain how he could be a war hero one day, and an anti-war candidate the next day.  It seems his past is catching up to him, as Bush's past did in 2000.

What is Kerry's plan for the economy? He hasn't said, beyond feel-good rhetoric that means nothing.

What is Kerry's plan for Iraq? He hasn't said, beyond feel-good rhetoric that means nothing.

What is Kerry's plan for immigration?  He hasn't said, beyond feel-good rhetoric that means nothing.

What is Kerry's plan for health care?  He hasn't said, beyond feel-good rhetoric that means nothing.

Need I go on?  All that most Americans know about Kerry is that he got three purple hearts in Vietnam and he may or may not be a liar depending on who you listen to.

Understand, these factors will not help Bush in terms of poll numbers before the election.  When called on the phone, people who don't care much for Bush will tell a pollster they prefer Kerry.  But that is a very different thing from getting up in the morning and taking 2 hours out of your work day to go vote in the November election.  My guess is alot of Kerry "supporters" will just stay home.

Plus I think it makes him sound like a whiney bitch. "Mommy(Bush) please make those bully leave me alone. At lunch they gave me a wedgie and pushed me into the girls locker room."

I think once the debates hit we are really going to see Kerry fall apart.  Right now most of the uspport is from people who only hear what CNN tells them.