At the moment, the dynamic of the Swift Boat thing is working strategically against Kerry, in this way I think. He was always on the verge of going too far in talking about his biography and Vietnam. His response to the Swift Boat attack has been to talk even more about his biography, and to do it in even more annoying terms as his surrogates increasingly mix in attacks on Bush’s National Guard service in their defenses of Kerry. If Kerry’s campaign was about his biography, it’s now about the argument over his biogrpahy–which is getting more and more remote from the concerns of voters and is even more likely to make them think he is a self-obsessed braggart, as he insists he really, really, really is a war hero. Also, he risks seeming whiny. He is essentially replaying the McCain 2000 and Cleland 2002 defenses, which was to focus their messages on their bitter complaints about the attacks against them. You might notice this didn’t work for McCain or Cleland.