It's hard to understand why the Republicans have been going after Kerry to release all of his service records. Did they really think that Bush could take Kerry on in a military service battle?
Well, they asked for it; now they got it.
The A.P. sifts through the record and concludes that Kerry's Military Records Show a Highly Praised Officer.
Kos has a rundown of Kerry's record, too.
For even more fun, try this side-by-side comparison(PDF) of Bush's military record and Kerry's.
The bad news is that the media is giving the Kerry-bashers a hand in this smear campaign. John O'Neill, a man who served in the same unit as Kerry -- BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME -- is popping up all over the place to say that Kerry is "not a war hero," and that he, "couldn't tie the shoes of some of the people in Coastal Division 11."
Notice that this CNN article leads with "A man who served in the same Navy unit as Sen. John Kerry denounced on Tuesday charges the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee made as an antiwar protester that he and other U.S. troops committed atrocities in Vietnam."
It is not highlighted that this man joined Kerry's division two months after Kerry returned to the states. They do mention it in the second paragraph, but assign it no particular relevance; they certainly don't point out that this little fact would kind of undermine anything this guy has to say about John Kerry's heroism in battle, since they never served together.
The first sentence, "A man who served in the same Navy unit as Sen. John Kerry.." is plainly misleading and CNN should be ashamed of themselves.
