The meltdown begins

Drudge says Kerry called one of the swifties directly, apparently reaching out either for help or mercy. Amazing! I would never have imagined Kerry would take such a risk. What if the candidate gets snubbed? How embarrassing could that get?

Well, according to Drudge, the snub is pretty much what happened. After a 10 minute chat with retired Navy Commander Robert Brant, in which Kerry was unable to fathom why the swifties hate him so, he asked to meet the Brant in person. He was turned down. Brant said Kerry was obviously not prepared to correct the record.

What do they say is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing repeatedly, yet expecting different results? Kerry is having a real hard time catching on to the lessons of his own history.

The real story today is how all this happened, given that the New York Times and other mainstream press did not even report the story until the Kerry campaign forced the issue with legal action.

I said it before: the Democrats think they invented the Internet, but the Republicans have definitely put it to best use.

Howard Dean became well-known largely because he used the web to raise lots of money. Radical stuff. Rock the vote, and all that. Except he had to learn the hard way that kids don't vote. Thank God they don't, but that's another article.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth raised peanuts-- a couple of hundred thousand dollars, compared to $15 million from George Soros to MoveOn and Media Fund alone. Then, they produced a highly credible, yet relatively inexpensive commercial and announced they would run it in just a few states.

That announcement got all the attention, including screams and shouts from the Kerry camp, forcing his broadcast and print waterboys to at least mention the story. I have not seen that ad, nor its recent successor, on my local television stations. It only shows up on news stories, in the context of the related controversy over Kerry's medals. You can't help but notice it now, if you watch the news at all. Even if you ignore the ad clips, you cannot help but realize that 1) there are real questions about Kerry's presumed heroism and 2) Kerry is scared.

And the Democrats cried foul, filed suits, hurled charges. The only video you saw of Bush on the subject is when he said John Kerry served honorably, and that all the 527 organizations should stop and that they are not helping the election process. And the Democrats cried foul over that, they want only the swifties renounced, certainly not MoveOn.org and their fellow travelers.

Then the blogs took over. All the argument and discourse begins, expands and propagates from there. Television is stuck with sound bites that do not penetrate the issue. The Internet blog world is one giant editorial page, with every opinion known to humanity, so readers can compare thoughts and ideas. Not everyone reads blogs, of course, but lots of people do and their opinions matter to others. Indirectly, everyone is learning from the blogs.

And what we have learned is what Charles Krauthammer taught us, that while conservatives think liberals are stupid, liberals are convinced conservatives are evil. It shows up in the blogs, particularly in the comments. Just peek at the various comments in this tiny blog. You will see "anonymous" posts attacking my obviously conservative point of view. But look at what they say. It is never logical, only personal. And look at other weblogs. La Shawn Barber has a great article on personal invective on blogs. And Michelle Malkin is an obvious and frequent target, both on her web site and by left-wing "journalists".

It's all okay. The truth will out. Just ask John Kerry.