The barking service buddy

I don't care so much about the paper trail (or lack of one).

The big tip-off for me that there might be something truly amiss is that there are no service buddies. Remember, GW was a good-looking wild-partying frat boy from a big-deal family whose dad was a Congressman or something --- you tend to notice guys like that and when they become a Governor and then President your casual acquaintance with them starts to grow into being best buddies. While GW is not a charismatic leader, he is an amiable meeter-and-greeter and there is no possible way that he was hidden away in the base library on Saturday nights curled up with his grad school books. He would be the first to laugh at that one.

That NO ONE comes forward and can even tell about some drunken party where they saw him is pretty strange...did he not even show up at all!? Wow.

But I wonder if the story may be peaking too soon.

Comments

[Mike Hill]

Well, two points. For the period under scrutiny he wasn't with his home boys. He was in Alabama among people who weren't familiar with him. And it was more than thirty years ago. For the period in question he was either attending Guard sessions in Alabama among people who didn't know him or he was not and he (as he claims) made it up back in Texas. In that case there would be no one to back him up because how would they know he was attending make-ups or not? Maybe I'm missing something.

Two, and I wish I could recall who I'm stealing this from, there's a case to be made that the reason this is playing now and not in the fall is because its purpose is to separate Kerry from his democractic rivals (who spent the period skiing or finding themselves) as much as to find a platform to begin the campaign agains Bush. They'll ride it as long as there's traction, of course, but the idea is that they would trade an October surprise for nailing down the nomination early.

Thanks for reading, by the way.

[David Sucher]

My point is that it doesn't matter whom GW was with -- a guy like GW is going to be remembered because of his fairly unusual background -- how many preppie grandsons of a Senator do most people ever run into? -- and because he strikes me as one hell of an unpretentious nice guy party animal who would probably be fun to have around the barracks. The fact that he might have been among strangers is a specific element that makes the thing strange.

[Person of Choler]

Strangest of all is that we are supposed to get excited about what Bush did or did not do in the National Guard thirty years ago; what Bill Clinton did while he was or was not at Oxford; whether John Kerry was a hero because of his acts in Vietnam or a heel because of his anti-military trashing of his "brothers" after he came home.

We have serious problems right this minute: a world full of well financed suicidal maniac terrorists; nuclear weapons in the hands of the nutcase who runs North Korea; nuclear weapons near at hand to the religious whackjobs lurking close to power in Pakistan....

I could go on, but I get depressed. I wish people were more interested in current threats than in picking nits over three-decades-old mox nix crap.

[Mike Hill]

David -- a letter to the NY Times makes your points so comprehensively I have to suspect he's a reader.

[David Sucher]

Well it appears that a great many people do indeed care and this great concern can be traced back to the Republicans' attacks on Clinton. So GW should not be surprised.

And if one believes that "character" is a reasonable element in deciding on a President, then past actions are not irrelevant at all.

But if one doesn't believe that discussions of GW Bush's peronal history are relevant to his job as President, then one simple solution is for people like Ann Coulter to shut up.

[Person of Choler]

What ought to be foremost in peoples minds now regarding GWB and his opponents and competitors is: what do they plan to do now and in the future about the terror war that flared on 11 September 2001.

I agree with Christopher Hitchens who wrote recently "I'm a single-issue person at present, and the single issue in case you are wondering is the tenacious and unapologetic defense of civilized societies against the intensifying menace of clerical barbarism."

Bush obviously understands this clearly and has shown his "character" by leading this defense.

Score so far.

Bush:
*Kicked Al Qaeda out of their safe haven in Afghanistan, and captured killed or neutralized their leadership
*Gave the people of Afghanistan a chance for better lives by overthrowing the lunatic theocracy that had ruled them
*Deposed one of the worst dictators of current times
*"Convinced" Libya to dismantle its nuclear weapons program (which was much farther advanced and more sophisticated than any of our "intelligent" public commentators even guessed at)
*"Convinced" the government of Pakistan to "out" Dr. Abdul Khan (Father of the Islamic Bomb) and his global shopping around of nuclear technology
His Opponents:
*Waffling, using the UN's paralysis as an excuse for avoiding action
*Investigations, hearings "questions and concerns"
*Quibbles over thirty-year-old National Guard Paperwork

Ann Coulter (or Michael Moore) notwithstanding, I think that Bush is ahead.