Doesn’t this just illustrate the dominance of the 2-party system? Or, does it still show the dominance of the mainstream liberal media? Is there still a possibilty of the Novemeber 1st Napalm? That would be the indication that Kerry received less than an honorable intial discharge?

Thor has forgotten that the country already knows about Kerry’s sliming of the entire U.S. armed forces at Hitlerian war criminals, a statement he has never retracted, and his vote against the ‘91 Gulf War resolution. As recently as 12 years ago, when Clinton was elected, those would have been considered automatic disqualifiers for the presidency (that’s why both Clinton and Gore needed to show that they supported the Gulf War, and why Sam Nunn’s national political prospects were considered caput after his vote against the Gulf War resolution). Yet today, Kerry is in a tight race for the presidency. If that conduct did not sink Kerry’s candidacy, why should the revelation of a less-than-honorable discharge?

See my article, “The Revelation of Nihilism.”

Mr. Auster, how in the world did you come to the conclusion that I forgot all those things from reading my comment? I think Kerry’s reference was actually to Ghengis Khan pronounced with a soft G. Why do I think such a revelation would have a dramatic impact? Because a DUI revelation concerning a former admitted substance abuser did!

I didn’t mean that you had literally forgotten. I meant you did not seem to be taking account of those facts in your argument.

The comparison to Bush’s DUI trouble is not apposite. Apparently a lot of undecided voters (the kind of people who have no convictions at all and just vote on how their emotions are going on a given day) were swayed by that story to vote for Gore, largely because the story broke just before the election and there was no time for it to be counteracted and assimilated, the way such stories are. Bush, as Bush, was certainly not discredited by it. It has been of no importance at all in the way the country views him. But what you’re talking about and hoping for in the case of Kerry is a revelation about him that would decisively, once and for all, in the eyes of the country, discredit him as an aspirant for the presidency. And, as I said, if that did not happen with his Jenjization of the U.S. armed forces, it will not happen as a result of any further information about a less than honorable discharge. We do not have the standards as a society we used to have.

And true, Kerry’s comparison was to Jenjis (sp) Khan, not Hitler.

The Fox News poll released yesterday shows a slim Kerry lead in the nationwide popular vote. The final CNN poll shows a 1-point Kerry lead in Florida.

As Mr. Auster pointed out previously, Dubya is partly responsible for the animosity that motivates his leftist opponents. He never challenged the charges that he stole the Florida electoral votes in 2000. Now he is paying the price. There is no substitute for being a statesman, a leader who speaks out, or at least having some ability with the English language. It would also be good to be without the hubris that “I am on a mission from God; I don’t need to respond to these scurrilous attacks.”