Politary

Update: A commenter has noted that the original linked story has been pulled and replaced by AP or Yahoo. Whether for editorial, style, content, or moral reasons is debatable. (In fact the story now linked includes several "Bush wasn't AWOL" testimonials from Guard members.) You'll have to take my word that the quoted portions I included here from the original are verbatim. Will seek another source. (But could the Blogosphere have brought this one down?)

Update #2 Here's a link to the original story. Meanwhile here's a link to another (apparently edited) version of the Lindlaw story.

Glenn Reynolds notes that Scott Lindlaw, the reporter who brought us yesterday's coverage of our traveling president is (ahem) reporting again. (And this time the story was presented with Kerry's response, thus preventing Scott Ott from pre-satirizing it.)

FORT POLK, La. - President Bush sought to buck up troop morale at a base that has supplied more than 10,000 soldiers to the war on terrorism — and lost a dozen in Iraq - vowing Tuesday that "the enemy will be defeated."

Note the distinction between the "War on Terror" and the "War in Iraq". Iraq is part of the war on terror. Sorry. Can't let that one slip by, and it's only the first example of editorializing the Democrat's message into the piece.

Or perhaps that's just balance. After all, the War with Germany was different from the War with Japan, right?

The president:

"My resolve is the same as it was on the day when I walked in the rubble of the twin towers," Bush said, his voice breaking. "I will not relent until this threat to America is removed."

Bush spoke to a sea of thousands of rowdy troops here, who responded with hearty howls of "hoo-ah!" at his applause lines. "There is no doubt that the enemy will be defeated and freedom will prevail," he said.

And please allow me to explain that the 'hoo-ah' is a vocal show of enthusiastic agreement; "hearty howls of hoo-ah", however, is an alliterative no-no.

Now puzzle with me over this paragraph order. See if you can find the one our ace reporter couldn't find a proper place for.

After trying to quell stories about his Vietnam-era military record, Bush sought Tuesday to put that controversy behind him by having lunch with members of the National Guard.

Twelve soldiers assigned to Fort Polk have died in Iraq, including two soldiers killed by a roadside bomb last week, according to Paula Schlag, a base spokeswoman.

Bush had lunch with hundreds of members of a National Guard unit, the 39th Enhanced Separate Brigade combat team, which ships out to Iraq in two or three weeks. Its members are from 10 states, mostly Arkansas. Sitting in a large tent, they dined on MRE packs filled with canned beef in barbecue sauce; potato chips and cookies. Bush too was eating an MRE, or meal-ready-to-eat, that included a beef enchilada.

Shoehorning, anyone? Like reporters in the mess hall, it just doesn't fit.

And the knock on Blogs is that they don't have editors? Those paragraphs were incoherent, bordering on random word generation. This reads like unedited notes that accidentally found their way into a finished story. And why does this '...Bush sought Tuesday to put that controversy behind him by having lunch with members of the National Guard." remind me of this movie line:

Frank: Wilma, I promise you, whatever scumbag did this, not one man on this force will rest for one minute until he's behind bars. Now lets go grab a bite to eat.

In his defense, the intrepid reporter could have been a bit shell-shocked by the decibel level of the cheers. Louder then at Daytona, if that's possible.

Or perhaps he was stunned by Guard member reaction to the AWOL story buried here:

Some soldiers said in interviews they didn't care about the controversy.

"In all honesty, most of us see the president coming as his support for the Guard," said Staff Sgt. Rebekamae Bruns. "I've heard about (Bush's Guard service), but it's not really what's going through our minds."

Some? And where are the quotes from the 'some' that did care?

Ex-Vietnam Veteran John Kerry cares. And he continues to speak from a bizarro world where the cheering is for him.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry has kept silent on the flap in recent days, but he used Bush's trip to Louisiana to criticize the president's treatment of the military.

"With Kerry, veterans will have a veteran in the White House who fights to make sure they get the benefits they deserve," the Massachusetts senator said.

Wow, third person references. He's channeling Bob Dole and Mike Dukakis.

Kerry said Bush's policies had threatened to undermine troops' pay, health care and battlefield protection.

"John Kerry will keep America's promise to those who served their country bravely," he said.

The 198,000-acre base here houses the Army's Joint Readiness Training Center for training exercises with the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.

The final line of the story and fact is brought out? Does this enhance credibility?

Are there pro-Bush reporters covering Kerry?

Okay, I'd really like to address the issues. Can anyone answer these questions:

What is the Kerry platform?

In light of the real time broadcast of the cheers, what does Kerry gain from not just shutting up? Is he really claiming that the troops would love him more?

Obviously the individual members of the military overwhelmingly (admittedly not 100% but 90% is a likely number) approve of the President's prosecution of the war on terror. Kerry believes otherwise; can someone please tell me why I should think Kerry's positions are grounded in reality?

Finally can someone give me a compelling argument that this man is fit to start a NASCAR race? Because I currently have no question about his fitness to command the US military.

Really, this is your chance. Convince me.