LOL. Matt, you are demonstrating elitism. Instead of listening to what Bernie says, you mock him and infer he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Priceless.

The veterans group, led by Mr. O'Neill, a former Swift boat commander who was recruited by the Nixon administration to debate Mr. Kerry on "The Dick Cavett Show" in 1971, began its campaign in early 2004 by criticizing Mr. Kerry's protests against the Vietnam War. But backed by Republican donors and consultants, they soon shifted to attack his greatest strength — his record as a military hero in a campaign against a president who never went to war.

Naval records and accounts from other sailors contradicted almost every claim they made, and some members of the group who had earlier praised Mr. Kerry's heroism contradicted themselves.

Some of Mr. Kerry's friends and former Swift boat crew members made advertisements during the race to try to shoot down the group's charges. But the campaign declined to air them widely because some strategists said that directly challenging the charges would legitimize them.
They approached Mr. Kerry after the election with the idea of setting the record straight.
So they have returned, for instance, to the question of Cambodia and whether Mr. Kerry was ever ordered to transport Navy Seals across the border, an experience that he said made him view government officials, who had declared that the country was not part of the war, as deceptive.
The Swift boat group insisted that no boats had gone to Cambodia. But Mr. Kerry's researcher, using Vietnam-era military maps and spot reports from the naval archives showing coordinates for his boat, traced his path from Ha Tien toward Cambodia on a mission that records say was to insert Navy Seals

Mr. Kerry's defenders have received help from unlikely sources, including some who were originally aligned with the Swift boat group but later objected to its accusations against Mr. Kerry. One of them, Steve Hayes, was an early member of the group. A former sailor, he was a longtime friend and employee of William Franke, one of the group's founders, and he supported the push to have Mr. Kerry release his military files. But Mr. Hayes came to believe that the group was twisting Mr. Kerry's record.

"The mantra was just 'We want to set the record straight,' " Mr. Hayes said this month. "It became clear to me that it was morphing from an organization to set the record straight into a highly political vendetta. They knew it was not the truth."

Mr. Hayes broke with the group, ending a 35-year friendship with Mr. Franke, and voted for Mr. Kerry. He has provided a long interview to Mr. Kerry's supporters, backing their version of the incident for which Mr. Kerry received the Bronze Star.

He served his country well by all accounts that I have read. I wasn't on a gunboat. He is way ahead of me on that score.

And again:

Not to brownnose, but I have to second the Slowman. Kerry was on the gunboat in Vietnam, even if it was only for four months. I wasn't. He gets my respect for that.

And again in 2005:

Kerry was on that gunboat, and I never was. That puts him way ahead of me regardless of any after the fact details.

And yet again in 2006. I am nothing if not consistent:

I don't know what happened in that gunboat. I wasn't there, and I don't really care since Kerry gets an A in my book for ever being in that boat despite the fact it was only for a three month tour and despite the fact he tried mightly to avoid it.

My hypertension medicated brain is not as sharp as it usd to be but I do remember Bush coming out against the Swiftboat ads. I'm sure he really didn't mean it, though.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5797164/

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush on Monday criticized a commercial that accused John Kerry of inflating his own Vietnam War record, more than a week after the ad stopped running, and said broadcast attacks by outside groups have no place in the race for the White House.
“I think they’re bad for the system,” added Bush, who had ignored calls to condemn the ad while it was on the air.