One would like to think that there’s no lower form of life in the Democrat party than Lanny Davis. Unfortunately for hopes of a livable world, there are worse.

I watched the segment myself, and I hope that Mr. O’Neill (a lawyer himself) knows what kind of smear machine he’s up against, and has adequately prepared himself. Based on what happened this weekend, he may indeed have. I’d like nothing better than for Mr. Davis, at long last, to finally have to pay at least a financial penalty for his vicious calumnies.

What was particularly irritating about the Hannity & Colmes show (which is often the case) was how ineffective Hannity was in arguing with him.

Lanny consistently referred to the Swift Boat as a “ship” (a term that any Navy vet would find laughable). The intent is obviously to imply that Kerry was commander of a vessel in which the crew, and the crew alone, worked, ate, slept, laughed, shat, and most importantly, fought with him, and that no one else was in a position to know what happened on his “ship.”

That is nonsense. It wasn’t a ship. It was a boat (as implied by its name), and not one on which the men lived. They lived on shore with others who got up every day and patrolled by day, often in close proximity to each other.

If one accepts the Kerry defenders’ arbitrary definition of “served with,” no one served with George W. Bush except the people who flew in his (single-seat) F-102 with him (i.e., no one). One doesn’t have to be in the same squad, or platoon, to “serve with” someone. There are higher levels of the hierarchy in which people still interact, often on a daily basis. The Swift Boat Vets all served together, despite the mud you’ll see slung over the next days and weeks as this story continues to grow more legs than a mutant millipede.

The more this goes on, the more hysterical the defenders become (Colmes: “Isn’t this despicable–how can they impugn the honor of a medal winner?” Ignoring, of course, the fact that many of those testifying against Kerry have their own medals, but Alan has no problem with smearing them as liars).

As I said, this is right out of the Clinton playbook. Ad hominem, trash the accusers, obfuscate the facts, use misdirection, like any skilled magician. At least this time, the nuts aren’t sluts–they’re attacking veterans and medal winners, not women victimized by Bill Clinton…

I suspect that this time, the illusion won’t stand up.

[Update at 10 PM PDT]

I see that Snopes has already leapt to his defense, emphasizing the evidence in his favor, and ignoring any against. I hope that this will also blow up the myth about them being non-partisan.

I don’t know what the big deal is. All Senator Kerry will have to say is “I went into Cambodia before I didn’t,” and the press will eat it up like (almost literally, considering the time frame) ice cream in August.

Last night I heard some Democrat flack claim that the current economy is the worst since Herbert Hoover.

Are people so historically ignorant that this kind of stuff is effective? For me, it’s totally counterproductive, and just makes me want to see Kerry, and all Dems lose all the more.

That’s how I’d describe Kerry’s response to the Swift Boat vets.

It reminds me of when Clinton sent his lawyer (who would not be in any position to know) out to deny that he’d raped Juanita Broaddrick, but would never deny it himself.

Senator Kerry steps in it again:

“I just came here from Bowling Green,” Kerry told the crowd to subdued applause. “I was smart enough not to pick a choice between the Falcons and the, well, you know, all those other teams out there. I just go for Buckeye football, that’s where I’m coming from.”

At that point, before all the boos began raining down upon him, Kerry seemed to realize his error. In an attempt to silent the angry crowd of University of Michigan supporters, Kerry said, “But that was while I was in Ohio. I know I’m in the state of Michigan and you got a great big M and a powerhouse of a team.” Then his face, presumably, the Botox permitting, turned Big Blue.

If it’s Monday, it must be wolverine country.

I wanted to write something about it, but given how busy I am, I figured it would be better to just wait for Mark Steyn to weigh in.

It was worth the wait.

In 1992, pictures of a baffled George Bush p

I wanted to write something about it, but given how busy I am, I figured it would be better to just wait for Mark Steyn to weigh in.

It was worth the wait.

In 1992, pictures of a baffled George Bush p

I wanted to write something about it, but given how busy I am, I figured it would be better to just wait for Mark Steyn to weigh in.

It was worth the wait.

In 1992, pictures of a baffled George Bush p

Gallup says that the convention cost Kerry support:

In the survey, taken Friday and Saturday, the Democratic ticket of Kerry and John Edwards trailed the Republican ticket of Bush and Dick Cheney 50% to 46% among likely voters, with independent candidate Ralph Nader at 2%.

Before the convention, the two were essentially tied, with Kerry at 47%, Bush at 46%.

The change in support was within the poll’s margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points in the sample of 763 likely voters. But it was nonetheless a stunning result, the first time in the Gallup Poll since the 1972 Democratic convention that a candidate seemed to lose ground at his convention.

That may be because there are some other similarities with the 1972 Democratic convention.

The really bad news is that this was a partial weekend poll, which usually tend to favor Democrats (they seem to be home more for surveying on the weekends than Republicans).

Speaking of hamsters, there’s some pretty phunny photoshopping here. I can’t decide which I like better: “Saving Private Hamster” or the operating room scene with the bunny suit.

Mark Steyn has Senator Kerry pegged:

Kerry now says that Bush “misled” him on Iraq. But, if he was that easily suckered by a renowned moron, how much more susceptible would he be to such wily operators as Chirac. They would speak French to each other, and Jacques would blow soothingly in his ear, and Kerry would look flattered, and there’d be lots of resolutions and joint declarations, and nothing would happen. We’d be fighting the war on terror through the self-admiring inertia of windbag multilateralism.

As for the home front, Kerry says: “As President, I will not evade or equivocate; I will immediately implement the recommendations of that [the 9/11] commission.” Whoa, hold on there. There’s a ton of recommendations, and some of us don’t like the part about concentrating all US intelligence under one cabinet secretary who serves not at the President’s pleasure but for a fixed term. That effectively institutionalises the groupthink resistance to alternative ideas that led to the 9/11 failures. Leadership is about hearing different viewpoints and reaching a judgment. But Kerry gives the impression that, as long as he enjoys the perks of the top job, he’s happy to subcontract his judgment to others.

He moans endlessly about the “outsourcing” of American jobs but, when it comes to his own job, he’s willing to outsource American foreign policy to the mushy transnational talk-shops and to outsource homeland security to some dubious intelligence tsar. There’s no sense of any strategic vision, no sense that he’s thought about Iran or North Korea or any of the other powder kegs about to blow. I tried to ask him about some of these matters during the New Hampshire primary and he intoned in response, “Sometimes truly courageous leadership means having the courage not to show any leadership.” (I quote from memory.)

The whole thing is like that. You know what to do.

Of course, he finished with a flourish:

…After an eternity, an aide stepped out from behind him and said, “The Senator needs you to move.”

“Well, why couldn’t he have said that?” muttered one of the old coots, as Kerry swept past us.

That’s how I felt after the Convention: all week Senators Biden, Lieberman and Edwards made the case that the Democrats were credible on national security. Why couldn’t Kerry have said that?

Because in the end he’s running for President because he feels he ought to be President. That’s his message to George W Bush: “The Senator needs you to move.” And even then everyone else says it better.