Kerry And His Presidential Bid

Silent Running provides one of the best summations of the Kerry campaign that I've read so far:

Taking apart John Kerry's tales of his experiences in Vietnam, while worthwhile in that the exercise reveals his embellishments and downright fabrications of the circumstances over the years, derails discussion of a key point. His contention that his shortened tour of duty in a war zone as a junior officer somehow serves to qualify him to become the Chief Executive of the United States. The insistence that the situation of spending a short amount of time as at the entry levels of executive authority in a military construct is a powerful prerequisite, a 'filled square' on his resume.

While notable, and laudable that he was there, it is actually irrelevant.

Kerry's tenure in the Navy was solely as a junior officer, exposed to the day to day, in your face, close at hand tactical decision making - management with limited execution authority. His service before that was as a junior supply officer onboard a destroyer - a period during which he was most likely in charge of routine paperwork, not making such a jackass of himself that the Chief Petty Officers actually running the section didn't toss him off the fantail, making sure he got himself out of his rack in the morning, and not much else. At no time during his tenure in Southeast Asia was he involved, nor does he claim to be involved, in any sort of 'bigger picture' types of activities in any sort of official capacity.

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Read it all.