words to eat
“The real issue is this,” Howard Dean said in March 2004, when endorsing formal rival Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., “Who would you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States of America, a group of people who never served a day overseas in their life, or a guy who served his country honorably and has three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star on the battlefields of Vietnam?”
That’s not helpful for either Senators Obama or Hillary (”Duck, incoming!”) Clinton.
And let’s compare Kerry to McCain.
John Kerry served three months in Vietnam, got three Purple Hearts, some for injuries of dubious severity, and got sent home.
John McCain was shot down over Vietnam, and when his captors realized he was the son of an admiral, offered to send him home. McCain refused special treatment and spent the next 5.5 years as a POW.