Kerry Spot    [ jim geraghty reporting ]
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Kerry makes his entrance at a town hall meeting in Toledo, Ohio, September 14, 2004.

[Should I even bother? CBS didn't even try to defend its documents Tuesday night. But let's recount the defensive, evasive, brazen, unfair propaganda. Since the first reports of the suspicious superscript "th," the Kerry Spot has been waiting and waiting for a comprehensive defense that might put the matter to rest. But now CBS is ignoring the arguments of the Kerry Spot, and the blogosphere , and the Washington Post , and the Dallas Morning News , and ABC News, and forensic document examiners and basically everyone who doesn't work for CBS News and has ever used Microsoft Word.]

DAN RATHER: President Bush took his reelection campaign today to a Las Vegas convention of the National Guard Association. What some were waiting to see and hear was whether he would finally

[Finally? Finally? He dealt with this stuff in 2000, he dealt with this stuff in February, and he released more documents found in July(and no one has questioned those). You have the audacity to demand the president answer your questions, when you refuse to answer your critics?]

address still unanswered questions about his own service in the guard. CBS's John Roberts has the "inside story."

JOHN ROBERTS: To hear President Bush tell it today, there was nothing to suggest even the hint of controversy surrounding his stint with the national guard.

[Well, until CBS produces a witness who didn't raise a half million for Kerry's campaign, and addresses any of the questions about the documents instead of ignoring them, there is no hint of controversy. Or what controversy there is pales in comparison to a major network running a hoax and then refusing to retract it.]

In fact, he barely even mentioned his service.

Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Nineteen individuals have served both in the Guard and as president of the United States, and I am proud to be one of 'em.

ROBERTS: But Democrats today had plenty to say about the president's record, rolling out a new internet ad highlighting unanswered questions, challenging him to clear the air.

TERRY McAULIFFE (Chairman, Democratic National Committee): If he lies about his military record,

[Show me the lie, Terry. And think about the 456,000 voters currently serving in the National Guard before you use your line that Bush lied when he said he served in the U.S. Air Force, because "National Guard service doesn't count as part of the armed forces."]

he's going to lie about his health care plan, his education leave no child behind, he's going to lie about job creation.

[Say, I don't recall hearing this argument from McAuliffe when Bill Clinton was running for president and there were those draft-dodging rumors. By the way, note that CBS feels it has time to repeat McAuliffe's attacks, but doesn't address the fact that the Washington Post reported Tuesday that there are "dozens of inconsistencies" between authenticated memos and the CBS ones, and your top experts say they didn't authenticate the memos.]

ROBERTS: The president has yet to weigh in on new documents about his National Guard record made public last week by 60 minutes. But in a radio interview, First Lady Laura Bush became the first White House insider to publicly doubt their authenticity.
LAURA BUSH (From radio interview): You know, they probably are altered and they probably are forgeries.
ROBERTS: However, Laura Bush offered no evidence to back up her claim...

[To quote ESPN's Stuart Scott, "Oh no he dint!" He "dint" just insinuate that the First Lady a liar! He "dint" just suggest there's no evidence the memos are forged. And he "dint" just throw down that gauntlet in front of the pajamahadeen! Oh, he did? You're gonna regret that one, boy.]

...and CBS News continues to stand by its reporting.

[It shouldn't. Your own 'experts' are backtracking as fast as they can.]

In Las Vegas, Guard members acknowledge the controversy has provoked some deep thinking, but they believe Lt. Bush served honorably.

Col. DICK TURNER (Idaho National Guard): I know he had to go through pilot training and what he did to fly the 102, and the training that takes just to be proficient in it on a day-to-day basis. So he did his duty, I'm sure.

ROBERTS: For the families of some Guard members it's not the past that's important, it's the present. Sgt. Sherwood Baker was killed in Baghdad April 26, betrayed, his brother claimed today, by a president who went to war on a lie.

DANTE ZAPALLA (Brother of Sgt. Sherwood Baker): My brother died trying to make an honest man out of George Bush, hoping to still find those elusive weapons of mass destruction.

[A seamless transition to a DNC press conference! And the suggestion that this one relative of a fallen soldier is representative of all military families! Brilliant! Years from now, journalists at the Buckhead School of Political Journalism will be studying this report for its da Vinci-esque perfection in spin and bias.]

ROBERTS: Iraq will be a central theme of John Kerry's address here on Thursday.

[I missed the memo, what's his Iraq position of the day?]

And while he won't mention the president's military record, Democrats plan to keep that issue alive,

[As does CBS.]

fighting what they see as an attempt by the Bush campaign to turn the focus from the questions to the questioners. John Roberts, CBS News, Las Vegas.

[Oh, John, Dan...you had to go and accuse the First Lady, probably the most popular and non-controversial member of the Bush administration, of lying. You go after a man's woman, there are going to be consequences. Even Bill Clinton threatened to punch William Safire in the nose when he called Hillary a liar. The affiliates, the media watchdogs, other networks, newspapers — everybody's going to come after you. You're holding a losing hand, and you just decided to go double or nothing.]