Kerry Spot    [ jim geraghty reporting ]
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Judging by the weird verb tense and lack of any description about when and where Kerry said this, I think the AP is moving copy that describes what Kerry will say later this evening.

Leaking the text creates a prebuttal for Bush's speech tonight, doesn't it?

Fighting back, Democratic Sen. John Kerry called President Bush "unfit to lead this nation" because of the war in Iraq and his record on jobs, health care and energy prices. He lashed out at the incumbent and Vice President Dick Cheney for avoiding service in the Vietnam War.

"I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq," Kerry said in prepared remarks issued as the Republican was poised to accept his party's nomination for a second term.

Cheney and Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., led a chorus of Republicans who challenged Kerry's credentials to be commander in chief, arguing that although they respect his decorated Vietnam War service, his 20-year voting record in the Senate on national security issues made him unfit for the nation's top job.

Kerry answered his critics with a blistering statement.

"For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as commander in chief," Kerry said. "We'll, here's my answer. I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq."

Only a small subset of political geeks, bloggers, and Star Wars geeks will grasp the meaning of the conclusion that Kerry is deploying the famous "Ackbar defense" — i.e., blindly walking into a trap.

Unless he's going to come out and address the Swift Boat Vets' arguments point by point, there's no point in John Kerry saying another word about Vietnam for the rest of the campaign. There is nothing he could say, less relevant to the here and now, and to the argument he has to make to the voters in the next 60 days, than to bring up Dick Cheney's deferments. His surrogates - McPeak, Wes Clark, even John Edwards - can do that. McPeak did it in a blistering way Wednesday morning, in fact. But Kerry needs to portray himself as a man focused on the future.

If Kerry spends the next couple days continuing to talk about Vietnam, and displaying the same ugly, "I-served-and-you-didn't-how-dare-you-judge-me" argument he used in his earlier Massachusetts races, he will continue to step deeper and deeper into the trap.

The last man picked in the National Football League's draft each year usually gets nicknamed "Mr. Irrelevant." If Kerry continues to talk about what he, Bush and Cheney did in 1968 instead of what he will do starting Jan. 20, 2005, he will earn that nickname for himself.

[Posted 09/02 09:11 PM]