SWIFTLY, AS IN A MOURNING SURPRISE

As a true Uncommitted Voter In A Swing State, I feel it’s my duty to provide occasional glimpses into my psyche as I try to figure out who gets my vote in November. Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of flapperation about John Kerry and these Swift Boat Veterans For Truth.

I’ve seen the ads. Living in Wisconsin, it’s tough not to. And I will credit the Bush campaign for refusing to make an issue of Kerry’s military service. (After all, it’s not like W is Audie Murphy, and it’s also in keeping with the Bush campaign’s apparent strategy of not making an issue out of anything that doesn’t directly have to do with September 11.) But I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole issue of Kerry’s combat medals and what he did or did not do with them is a total non-starter with me.

A politician exaggerated his military service for political gain? A shavetail officer right out of training stretched the truth to get a shiny bit of metal? Really? Why, next thing you know, some politician might exaggerate his or her faith to make their opponents seem impious!

Seriously, it took me about a femtosecond to figure out that Kerry was going to hit us all with a double shot of Vietnam every time he opened his mouth. I tuned that stuff out a long time ago. Likewise, I’ve long believed that Vietnam was a stupid, ego-driven war, and I’m highly suspicious of anyone Kerry’s age who didn’t protest it. Picking on returning soldiers was boorish, but being against the Vietnam War? That was just being smart. So the throwing of the medals and the testimony also mean nothing to me. As I’ve said before, I’m pretty sure nobody deserves to be president, but somebody has to be. I don’t care about either Kerry’s or Bush’s military service. I don’t care about Bush’s “lost years” or DUI arrest(s).

Kerry has left the door wide, wide open for Bush. His waffling on Iraq and failings on the Senate Intelligence Committee truly trouble me. But Bush has done nothing to counter. I honestly wonder if the president has really started campaigning yet. Bush has said that the Vietnam attack ads should stop, and I think he’s right. All they’re doing now is annoying me. But I still don’t have what I need most–a reason to vote for either Bush or Kerry that has nothing to do with the fact that Bush is not Kerry, and Kerry is not Bush.

Generally speaking, when you have a hard time making up your mind between two choices, it indicates that you don’t perceive much of a difference between them. I think there are significant differences between the two, but the way Bush spends money, it’s getting less and less every day.