Who Can Really Say?

Dan Watshisname?

From Matt Yglesias:

Now it looks like they're forgeries. Assuming they are forgeries, we can conclude the following:

* George W. Bush pulled strings to avoid combat service in Vietnam by entering the Texas Air National Guard, failed to complete his service in a rigorous manner and has lied about it repeatedly for years.

* CBS News, like the United States of America, is run by some kind of idiots.

* Other Texans, less fortunate than Dubya, died so that he could avoid service in a war he supported.

Well, you might conclude points 1 and 3, but not based upon the documents themselves. They only establish part of point 2.

But if 1 and 3 are true too, where does that leave us? We've got a self-interested incumbent guilty of the above, and a self-interested challenger guilty of embellishing his experience in Vietnam for political purposes during his Congressional testimony immediately following the war, and again years later on the Senate floor for the purposes of swaying a national security debate.

And all of the above took place some 18 to 30+ years ago. I'd say its time we MovedOn. In the greater scheme of things, there's got to be something more telling about the candidates to put on the table. And a better way to talk about it to.

The real story about the documents doesn't involve Bush, or even Kerry (yet?), but Rather involves the credibility and reputation of Dan Whatshisname and CBS News.

Posted by Peter at September 14, 2004 08:45 PM