PLANET CALIFORNIA

This time it's campaign finance reform that suffers from the unrelenting tinkering of McCain-Feingold, presenting a brand, spanking-new way to screw up America's presidential campaigns.

The 527s
No, they're not new airplanes. These groups of like minded people have been allowed to be set up to actively campaign for the candidate. They've been loopholed and then used by George Soros, a Hungarian, and others to give as much unlimited contributions to a campaign (soft money) as they like.

The bad news is there are no real regulations on how they money can be spent. Moveon.com (remember when it was Moveon.org?) is an example of these ad hoc groups who by law are to have no coordination with the campaigns. In other words, they can call the president a thug, Hitlerian, or an idiot with alarming ease in paid-for ads on TV, as long as they identify their status. The principals, Kerry and President Bush stay above the fray while people like you and me duke it out.

Which is why I don't understand why Kerry insinuates himself into the fight. Every time he opens his mouth, the media is there. All he needs to do is stop talking about the Vietnam War--again. And Again.

To be fair, there are obviously counterparts on the Republican side. However, per usual, we Republicans don't possess a sensibility to go for the jugular--never have, never will. That's why we need to understand the game that is being played here. Gentlemen and women don't participate in bar room brawls.

As I've said, the Swift Boat Veterans have the right to defend themselves. The fact that the Swifties consist of half Dems, half GOP and Inds helps their credibility. Two millionaires stepped up with some money, and people in cyberspace have responded with the rest. They've been given $1.2 million in the last two weeks. I believe you call this phenomenon "voting with your dollars."

Psychoanalysis of John Kerry

When you think about it, the Kerry campaign's strange decision to use Kerry's relatively minor war career as its centerpiece is downright Freudian. John Kerry, all grown up now, sees his past as harmful, so to make him right to everyone else, at any cost, he self-aggrandizes. Wanting power more than they want a new wife, Kerry friends think if they can just somehow hang on to the Kerry myth, they will participate in the spoils of the win. They're all auditioning for a cabinet spot. Anything to be close to power. After all, they've been out of power for quite a while now.

Secondly, they're having a lot of fun. There's nothing more silly than aging leftists of the sixties trying to relive their "rebel" pasts. They're acting exactly as they did during the anti-war years: abusive, demanding and self-obsessed. They use, by and large, the same language, the same lies, the same hyprocricy Americans have learned to recognize as overdone and tired. I guess you could say that Americans have it seared--seared--in their memories the harm caused by people like John Kerry and Jane Fonda after the war.

Underneath it all, they must know they are hiding from the results of their heartless, thoughtless treatment of Vietnam soldiers. Underneath it all, they have to realize how wrong they were.

The fact of the matter is Kerry can't run on his record; he knows he'll lose because most Americans are middling types. It seems he can't run on his four-month tour of duty in Vietnam either, thanks to the Swift Boat Vets.

Do you get a Purple Heart when you fall on your own petard?

Thanks for the read.

# posted by Andrea Margot Hall @ 9:38 AM