Like you, I hate to give my opponents advice, but in the end I do it because its only fair and polite.

If I only had one piece of advice for Kerry, it would be to start drinking heavily.

If we got to a second piece of advice, it would be this: start looking forward. You *can* ignore reporter's questions about Vietnam and the past, but first you yourself must ignore Vietnam. Personal events from 30 years ago are irrelevant to the war we're in today. They offer Kerry no help of consequence, and the Susan Estrichs of the world will discover they don't do much harm, either (we already know George W. Bush, he's been *President* for four years, without any drunk driving incidents in the timeframe that matters to us now).

He has to take his own advice, and "move on." Bitching about Cheney's draft deferrements after the man's led us through three and a half wars is stupid, and when said by Kerry, is just seriously whiny at this stage. Bush et al. stayed above the fray-- they hit Kerry hard on his record, they didn't personally attack him. Sure, the SwiftVets did-- but that's no different than MoveOn.org calling Dubya BushHitler. Kerry has to let his 527's fight the other 527's, and not be dragged down to their level of sniping.

Hit Bush on spending. Sure, he's no better, but Kerry can slam Bush's stuff as window-dressing microprograms constructed purely for political gain, progams that won't make a difference, unlike Kerry's BIG IDEA programs. And Bush is vulnerable among the warmonger crowd WRT North Korea and Iran due to his lack of any long term plan. Alas, Kerry's proposals so far are actually worse than having no proposals. But again, Kerry can be strong in arguing that we're obssessing too much about Iraq when there are other fish to fry.

Of course, his base may get upset at harsh words about the rest of the Axis of Evil, because Kerry would have to get to the right of Bush, and thus seriously far right to his base. But hey, they will have to come out and support a winner, right?

Right??

Damn, being behind in the polls is really gonna unhinge these guys.

Cheers,
Dave
Arlington, Virginia

If I only had one piece of advice for Kerry, it would be to start drinking heavily.

We can put a check in this particular box.

French, drunk, and nuanced is no way to go through life.

Ace-- you want to do some original reporting? There has to be a way to get both Kerry's and Bush's college transcripts, or even their SAT scores. There just *has* to be.

It'd be great if Kerry "Has. No. Grade. Point. Average."

While it was obvious that the lefty media would go after Bush's records in 2000, I doubt any smart righties are bothering themselves with Kerry's records. It would look tawdy, and cheap.

Just up your alley, man.

Cheers,
Dave
Arlington, Virginia

Some sites dredged up Kerry's SATs a while back. They weren't good numbers. By all available data Kerry was no more an academic star than Bush, worse in some respects considering his Euro boarding school years.

Unlike most, I put almost no stock in people's academic records unless that person is specifically stating that he is smarter than so and so.

Kerry and his supporters love to say Bush is stupid and a moron but it was not Bush that couldn't get into a graduate school--it was Kerry who ended up going to a 2nd-tier law school in Boston. It wasn't Bush who flunked out of college twice--it was Gore. It wasn't Bush who was expelled for cheating from Harvard--it was Ted Kennedy.

Rhodes Scholar Bill Clinton is as smart as I am, Marymount University graduate.

See Drudge-- CLINTON TELLS KERRY FROM HOSPITAL BED: STOP TALKING ABOUT VIETNAM.

My earlier comment above: "first [Kerry] must ignore Vietnam."

Damn, I hate it when I'm right.

John Kerry, John Kerry, please, *please* ignore the two-term Democrat President's advice. After all, what does Bill know about comebacks? It's not like he was ever impeached or anything.

Cheers,
Dave
Arlington, Virginia

Dammit, I break an exclusive (well, to me at least), and I even screw that up by not posting my name.

Anyways, more at my site about Clinton and Kerry, and my Oliver Willisesque-stalking of Ace.

Oh, and you can even play on-line poker for money over there.

Cheers,
Dave
Arlington, Virginia

"Kerry is, at best, Paris to Bush's Achilles."

Ummm... trying not to be anal about it, but I don't really agree with this anology. Paris is definitely painted as a flighty, Hamlet-like character at times, but he does have moments of honor and valor in "The Iliad." And don't forget, he kills Achilles. I have little good (by modern standards) to say about the Achilles character (especially throwing a hissy fit and sitting out much of the war while his friends were getting killed). One analogy that may play is the single-minded pursuit of revenge after Patroclus dies. While that characteristic played well to the ancient Greeks, that are many troubling aspects to it. The other that I would most agree with is the decision to stay and fight, even though he knows it will mean his death.

OK, I'll stop with the totally off-topic rambling...