Considering that I am Last Man Standing…

and doing so in 13 inch stilletos…well, that says something, doesn’t it?

Now, About Bush’s TANG Days, CBS and the DNC…

I’ve got a different take on what has been going on for the last week, and I want to run it by everyone (especially because I’m everyone’s favorite today, for some reason). I always try to Peter Lynch’s Beat The Street principle of relying on the information you gather yourself, rather than solely relying on “experts”. So what I end up doing, often, is picking up bits of information and try synthesizing it into a more ‘big picture’ analysis. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Here’s my take on the MSM/DNC attack on Bush regarding his TANG days…

What I don’t think anyone is really focusing in on at this time is why the DNC and the MSM are ratcheting up their attacks on Bush’s service record at this time. To me at least, explanations that he is vulnerable or that the Dems have lost their collective minds don’t really ring true. Nor does the Susan Estrich “They’ve slimed us, so we’ll slime them” theme resonate with me. Yes, they’re incompetent and stupid, but not to this extent. And they are not, in my opinion, completely irrational. There’s something else out there, lurking, that we are not paying attention to.

I think it is Unfit For Command, and here is why. While the interest in the book has been very high, as have been sales, if you ask people who run bookstores (I do), they will tell you they could have sold double the copies they did had Regnery’s initial printing been larger. To a great extent, scarcity limited the impact it has actually had over the first 3 weeks of release. Well, I was out this weekend at a mall, and there in the window of Waldenbooks is a great, big stack of Unfit For Command at 30% off. Based on my discussion with the sales clerk of the store, they have finally received enough copies to properly stock the book…their shipments up to last Friday were complete pre-sold. When I asked if sales had slowed, the answer was “No”.

We have tended to focus on the impact of the SBVFT TV ad campaign, in large part because it is both high profile and viewer reactions can be quickly polled and analyzed. But the reality is, in my opinion, that Unfit For Command is causing a massive shift, and is doing so under the MSM radar. And that would explain the actions of everyone from Terry McAuliffe to Ben Barnes to Dan Rather to Juan Williams.

The book has been out there long enough for the Dems to put in the hands of focus groups. But now it is out there in enough numbers that it can be purchased easily and on a whim. If I could take a guess, what I think they are getting back from those focus groups is that it has a catestrophic impact on Kerry by those who read it. Given that we now know that neither SBVFT or Unfit For Command can be discredited for inaccuracy, what can the Dems do to mitigate the damage of this book?

Military/Moral Equivalency

Prove Bush was just a derelict as Kerry, just as much a subpar officer, just as much a liar. The Dems and the MSM are not trying to destroy Bush, they are trying to bring him down to Kerry’s level…How else do you actually render Kerry’s actions in the Navy or as a part of VVAW meaningless in evaluating and comparing the character of Bush and Kerry?

The success of the Republican Convention, and Kerry’s own campaign incompetence have obscured, in my opinion, the impact of Unfit For Command. I would wager money that when all is said and done, it will be the single greatest factor in the destruction of Kerry’s candidacy. And, I think the DNC and the Kerry campaign have been getting data back from focus groups and internal polling telling them that the minute an uncommitted voter, a nonpartisan voter, or a centerist looks at that book, Kerry is dead meat.

Think about it, it explains everything. Including why Rather felt he had to get that story out now…Because Unfit For Command is going to be sitting on the shelves of every bookstore in American between now and Nov. 2. And in large numbers, too.