The Old Bait and Switch

The prevalence of President Bush's negative and attack based campaigning is a truism, despite some people, like David Limbaugh's, attempts to deny it. In his latest article, Mr. Limbaugh attempts to deny the self evident fact that the President and (particularly) the Vice President are running a very negative campaign by suggesting that Kerry was negative first and more viciously.

This issue matters, because the media are using the lie that Bush started the attacks as a foundation for Kerry to go nuclear against President Bush with impunity -- certainly with their full blessing. But Democrats have been personally attacking the president for four years.

You see the switch? He didn't use the phrase Senator Kerry has been attacking the President personally for years/ Nope, it was Democrats that have been attacking the President personally for years.

Limbaugh then dissects Senator Kerry's response to the Republican National Convention. Kerry finally responded to the personal attacks by President Bush and Vice President Cheney and their surrogates by tackling the Vietnam issue head on. In a scathing statement, Kerry said the following.

For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as Commander-in-chief. Well, here's my answer. I will not have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq.

The Vice President called me unfit for office last night. Well, I'll leave it up to the voters to decide whether five deferments makes someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty.

Strangely enough this isn't the part of Senator Kerry's speech that David Limbaugh chooses to dwell on. I guess he realizes that focusing on this issue won't make his guy look very good. So instead he talks about Iraq and pretends that this is the big counter punch.

Senator Kerry, throughout his campaign, has been critical of the President's decision to lead us into war in Iraq. So this let's Limbaugh make fun of the media for pretending that Senator Kerry's criticisms of the Bush Iraq policy are something new. Kind of cheap, but better than admitting what Kerry's counter-punch was really all about.

And, it goes without saying, that claiming your opponent has engaged in a reckless foreign policy initiative by deceiving the American people about the costs and the rationale is not a personal attack. I suppose I wouldn't blame President Bush for taking it personally, but it's not. It's an attack on President Bush's policy decisions. That is a long way from suggesting that Senator Kerry is a coward and a braggadocio, casting aspersions on the service he gave to his country.