At things fall apart, we feel some points must be made again and again.

Huffy and red faced, Conservatives continue to cite John Kerry's 1992 defense of Clinton's Vietnam record as cause to dismiss the Bush issue. Yet those on the right forget: Bill Clinton never campaigned on the military. On the other hand, George Bush, employing subtlety and restraint normally associated with professional wrestling, signaled the direction of his 2004 effort by landing a jet on an aircraft carrier last May.

Conservatives, at that time, were giddy over the prospects of a campaign based on the military, because they assumed the Democratic candidate would be Howard Dean. Consider this recent quote from Pat Buchanan:

"What`s happened to the president, though, on the war issue and the Vietnam issue is, they were war-gaming Howard Dean. The National Guard doesn't make any difference in a race with Howard Dean. He is now in a race with John Kerry, who's got an outstanding war record while he was in Vietnam. And so the National Guard becomes an issue, because it`s vis-a- vis a war hero." (Scarborough Country, 02.10.04)