The Swift Boat Ad

It is known as the "Swift Boat Ad." If you haven't seen it, you will certainly hear about it. It features men who claim that they served with Kerry, and who argue that he wasn't really the war hero that his shipmates and the Navy say he was.

Some of the men in the ad have been Kerry enemies for years. Most have developed new memories of events that are 30 years old since Kerry emerged as the Democratic nominee.

The White House, defending an incumbent who is still trying to support claims that he fulfilled his military service with dental records from Alabama from the summer of 1972, has contended that it has nothing to do with the ad, but it has refused to demand that its supporters, who financed it, take it off the air.

Consider:

This year, because of changes in the law, and the proliferation of independent groups, the presidential candidates have less control than ever over what goes over the airwaves in support of their candidacies. Even so, it is difficult to believe that Bush's friend Perry would ignore a call from the White House requesting him to stop supporting a group that is embarrassing the president.

Last year, Republicans were quick to pounce on Moveon.org, an independent Democratic group, when a public contest included on ad that compared Bush to Hitler. The Republicans were right to be outraged - Democrats denounced the ad, and MoveOn removed it. In the end, it is not unfair to judge a candidate by the company he keeps

The White House has said it does not believe that this election should be run on the issue of John Kerry's Vietnam War record. If it is, George Bush can only lose. He wasn't a hero - like Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney, he did everything he could to avoid service in a dangerous war. He did not save anyone's life but his own.

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