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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Vietnam revisited (continued)
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
 |  George W. Bush is seen here in a file photo taken during the time of his service in the Texas Air National Guard. |
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 VIDEO |
 CNN's Candy Crowley on John Kerry's approach.
 CNN's John King on newly released Bush memos.
 CNN's Bill Schneider looks at past election scare tactics.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Swift boat vets, meet the Texans. You're all seeking the "truth." Good luck.
Campaign '72 ...er '04 continues today amid fresh promise that the candidates' Vietnam military service, or lack thereof, will dominate yet another one of the dwindling number of weeks before Election Day. The media will be hard-pressed to ignore yesterday's trio of Bush developments (the debut of Texans for Truth, a group questioning the president's National Guard service; a Boston Globe article saying he failed to meet his military requirements and a "60 Minutes" report on the Killian memo) given the 24/7 coverage we offered John Kerry's accusers last month. (Full story)
Today's debate will focus largely on a memo from President Bush's former squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, which ordered the young pilot "to be suspended from flight status for failure to perform" to U.S. Air Force and National Guard standards and failure to take his annual physical "as ordered." White House communications director Dan Bartlett, interviewed on "60 Minutes," called the new charges "dirty politics" being generated by "partisan Democrats" who were "recycling the very same charges we hear every time President Bush runs for re-election." Notably, however, Bartlett did not challenge the documents' authenticity.
We'll let scribes with better hours and bigger brains sort through the details of these "new" revelations. (One thing we do know: No candidate for any office wants the word "AWOL" anywhere near his name.) But eight weeks from now, we hope we're not all shaking our heads over a campaign that got lost this summer in a 32-year-old debate. The debate is emotional and relevant, sure, but since it's OK to borrow Howard Dean's words this week, we'll paraphrase by saying that the debate over Vietnam will never create one job, insure one child or bring one soldier home from Iraq.
The president travels today to Colmar, Pennsylvania, to talk about the economy to workers of a company that manufactures Christmas figurines, Byers' Choice Ltd. He was following up with a campaign rally later in the day in Johnstown. There, Bush will continue his mantra of "ownership," talking about the importance of owning small businesses, homes and control of one's own health care and retirement.
Camp Kerry is launching two TV ads -- for today only -- in the media markets Bush is visiting, Johnstown and Philadelphia.
The Philly ad hits Bush for promising to strengthen Medicare in 2000 and now, four years later, "imposing the largest Medicare increase in history. Now Bush is back, but around here we remember Bush's broken promises. It's time for a new direction."
The Johnstown spot notes that Bush never campaigned in the central Pennsylvania town four years ago. "Now he's here promising to take the side of working families. But we know what matters -- facts, not promises," the ad says.
Kerry, for his part, talks about health care at the Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. The senator's visit to the city comes two days after Vice President Dick Cheney touched off a firestorm there by warning that a vote for Kerry-Edwards could encourage new terrorist attacks. Kerry later travels to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he addresses the National Baptist Convention. He overnights in St. Louis, Missouri.
John Edwards is in New Hampshire and D.C.; Cheney is in Wisconsin and Ohio, where state officials yesterday certified a November 2 ballot that includes Ralph Nader and a proposal to ban same-sex marriage. The certification deadline was described as "technical," so if the same-sex marriage amendment or Nader do not qualify, they will be removed from the ballot.
For the record, both Bush and Kerry also qualified for the Buckeye State ballot.
Meanwhile, the Kerry campaign will announce today that former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry will join its debate negotiation team. McCurry's move comes after other Democratic officials and former Clinton advisers have started playing a larger role in the campaign. McCurry is chairman of Grassroots Enterprise Inc., a public affairs firm based in Washington.
Vernon Jordan is leading the team that also includes veep search leader Jim Johnson, Govs. Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, and super-lawyer Robert Barnett.
Also today, there will be no congressional vote on an eleventh-hour effort to renew the assault weapons ban, which is scheduled to expire Monday. "I think the will of the American people is consistent with letting it expire," said Senate Majority Leader Bill First. Bush had indicted he would sign the bill if it passed, but he did not step in to push Congress into renewing the law.
Bush, of course, never lifted a finger for the gun bill. But with friends like Tom DeLay, you can see why. "No, I would not," the House majority leader said yesterday when asked whether he would have moved the bill if Bush had asked him to do so. "There are not the votes to pass the bill. If the president asked me, I would tell him the same thing," Delay said.
Speaking of guns, the National Rifle Association is going up with 30-minute infomercials today in Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, North Carolina and West Virginia. The infomercials in the Carolinas focus on tight Senate races, and those in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia look at the presidential race. The initial one-week buy is $400,000 to $500,000.
And finally today, the Bush campaign begins two days of online chats designed to reach out to African-Americans. The chats are being hosted by what Bush-Cheney calls "superstars" (the campaign's word, not ours) -- NFL Hall of Famer Lynn Swann and former Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma. Swann's up today; Watts chats online tomorrow.
