Fire Light in the Strib Cockpit...

The Jim Boyd (Deputy Ed, Minneapolis Star Tribune) thing is percolating a little faster, at least according to Hugh Hewitt and his cohorts in the Northern Alliance. It must be terrifying for Boyd (Jim, NOT John!) and his ilk to have articulate lawyers climbing all over them. They and their fellow travelers are being attacked on a number of fronts by an eclectic bunch of intellectually honest Righties and Lefties--Don Luskin v. Paul Krugman (no contest), Hugh Hewitt v. Peter Beinhart (not a fair fight, assuming Beinhart shuts up for a minute or two), Christopher Hitchens critiquing Fahrenheit 9/11, etc., etc. I'm just waiting for Hitchens to put out one of his cigarettes on Michael Moore's forehead on Fox and Friends, although the slope on the latter's may make that challenging.

The mind reels, the heart bleeds. Or not.

Like most, I've pretty much kept my mouth shut on the Kerry medals kerfuffle. But the Left keeps trying to avoid facing the real issues the entire effort to challenge Kerry's past raises, i.e., HOW the man really thinks and WHAT he really thinks.

After all the ruckus, Kerry still refuses (consciously, I am convinced) to apologize to all Vietnam vets for his '71 testimony, words that were choreographed and a tissue of lies from stem to stern. That's what's beginning to slowly rise up in the national consciousness (along with the bile in just about every vet's throat). Why?

Since the 70s, the American soldier has been politically rehabilitated...and I use that phrase with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek--he doesn't need any rehab and never did. But now if a Fort Carson or Fort Hood or [fill in your Fort here] soldier were spit on--literally or, ala Kerry, figuratively--in the airport returning from Iraq like some guys were coming back from Southeast Asia, the attacker would probably be torn limb from limb on the spot. Yet, in spite of that, the people running the Kerry campaign have been channeling the 60s spitters since Howard Dean started showing some Big Mo. The loons that have hijacked the Democrat Party completely missed it, and have since 1967. Even JANE FONDA apologized (sort of), for crap's sake. Hello? Hello? Feh...

Then, all of a sudden, they think they can slam dunk George W by turning what was their most visceral example of US evil, the Vietnam War, and the men who fought bravely in it, into a Band of Brothers-like Noble Effort in which their hero took part and thus should make this election, in Peter Beihart's words, "no contest."

BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Peter...you don't have a friggin' clue...and that's why you can't figure out how to counter the wave...the majority of Americans don't think like New York editorial boards.

The rest is in the Flash Traffic!

All Kerry's said over the past 19 years in the Senate (and earlier) is a rank embarrassment -- if you pay attention -- and truly a damning indictment to I think most of mainstream America. Fortunately for Kerry (until now), most everyone outside Massachusettes didn't pay attention...and perhaps that low profile is his center of gravity. Now the thin-skinned Senator is out of defilade and taking rounds all about the head and neck.

If he could use video, all GW would have to do in the debates is use two words: "Roll tape." Virtually everything Kerry says can be refuted by his own words as he has bobbed and weaved with the prevailing currents on the stump and on the Senate floor for years.

Full disclosure...I didn't go to Vietnam; I was too young by about a year. But I did enter a Service academy when the conflict was still ongoing and would have gladly gone if asked had it lasted longer than it did.

Yes, John Kerry went, and that took physical courage. But what he needs right now, and would need, in spades, to keep America safe and free, is political and moral courage. I don't think he's a bad man. But I don't think he has the guts, or the brains, or the heart to run the country in time of war. Period. Dot. Personal opinion from this cockpit is that George has him beat in those departments (Roll tape!)

His performance in the past few weeks has only served to reinforce my impressions, although I will admit his cussing out the Secret Service guy after taking a spill on the slopes convinced that a swift kick in the nuts is looooong overdue and probably clinched it for me. Elitist a**hole...that guy's job is to TAKE A ROUND FOR YOU and you're flipping him s**t????! Needless to say I would make a poor USSS liaison to the Kerry White House.

One last thing...and I can't prove it...but my gut tells me I could safely bet a month's pay W would have gone too, had the 102s from the Texas Guard been mobilized...and something also tells me he wouldn't have had his crewchief film him climbing in and out of a cockpit at the beginning and end of a mission.

Now I think others are beginning to realize that, too.

Instapilot