As I have mentioned before, we are likely to see an unprecedented level of unfounded attacks from the increasingly desperate Democrats. Kitty Kelly's book is starting to make headlines already with its at best unreliable claims, though it took from May to August for the mainstream media to "notice" the very credible SwiftVets.
In other "news" former Texas Governor Ben Barnes is flip-flopping on his earlier testimony and now claims he did get the young future president into the National Guard. There's just one problem.
FrontPageActually there are several problems; read the whole thing. And this, too.
Trouble is, George W. Bush began the first of six years’ service in the National Guard in 1968, but Barnes did not become Lt. Governor of Texas until 1969.
Byron York fills in all of those troublesome gaps in the old fashioned media's coverage of the Bush Guard years, which are certain to garner attention in inverse proportion to Bill Clinton's years of service avoidance. York covers Bush's missing time in the guard. No, not the time Democrats claim President Bush was AWOL. Rather the time they completely missed reporting on; the six years Mr. Bush served in the the Guard with distinction. The time you and I have never heard a word about because the President didn't bring it up and the big media didn't want to tell us any more than they had to.
Before you fall for Dems' spin, here are the factsYork will fill you in on the details, read the whole thing. Really.
The future president joined the Guard in May 1968. Almost immediately, he began an extended period of training. Six weeks of basic training. Fifty-three weeks of flight training. Twenty-one weeks of fighter-interceptor training.That was 80 weeks to begin with, and there were other training periods thrown in as well. It was full-time work. By the time it was over, Bush had served nearly two years.
Not two years of weekends. Two years.
After training, Bush kept flying, racking up hundreds of hours in F-102 jets. As he did, he accumulated points toward his National Guard service requirements. At the time, guardsmen were required to accumulate a minimum of 50 points to meet their yearly obligation.
According to records released earlier this year, Bush earned 253 points in his first year, May 1968 to May 1969 (since he joined in May 1968, his service thereafter was measured on a May-to-May basis).
Bush earned 340 points in 1969-1970. He earned 137 points in 1970-1971. And he earned 112 points in 1971-1972. The numbers indicate that in his first four years, Bush not only showed up, he showed up a lot. Did you know that?
That brings the story to May 1972 — the time that has been the focus of so many news reports — when Bush “deserted” (according to anti-Bush filmmaker Michael Moore) or went “AWOL” (according to Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee).
The thing that amazes me most is that Democrat strategists actually expect people to believe that they care whether a candidate has a distinguished service record. They don't really even care if he served. They would really prefer a candidate who hadn’t.
