the opinionist

The New York Magazine published a story earlier this week entitled, “Rudy and ‘Nam : He’s no War Hero. Will it Matter?” by Geoffrey Gray.

The article begins, “Rudy Giuliani, speaking about terrorism and the Iraq war, said last week, “It is something I understand better than anyone else running for president.” How long will John McCain—a real-life war hero down seventeen points in the polls—stand for such bluster, considering the lengths Giuliani went to to stay out of Vietnam?”

Gray quotes Jon Soltz [related PBS link] [Huff. Post] of VoteVets.org (a left-leaning version of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth), “If Giuliani is the nominee, we’re going to hammer him with ads, and it’s going to be easy because the issue is simple: He’s a draft dodger …“.

Retired General Wesley Clark chirps, “Giuliani gets a zero-zero. He wasn’t willing to risk his life for his country, and he has no relevant experience that’s in any way useful to be commander-in-chief. He hosted the U.N. and had a large police force.”

This had me thinking. Perhaps the ‘Real’ Swift Boat advocacy group and this sexy-new ‘leftist’ VoteVets.Org group might consider a standardized rating system to weed out the perceived viability of the 2008 Presidential Candidates based on a weighting system that considers age, Vietnam applicability, career and military service?

Obviously military service would score highly and draft dodgers would be penalized. Recognized wartime heroics would surely be rewarded highly whilst self-serving careers would be deducted from the overall ’social contribution’ horizon.

I’ve enclosed my draft (version 1.0) example based on each GOP / DNC candidate thus far declared or listed purely as a potential 2008 Presidential candidate.

The results are quite startling!

: 14 GOP and 9 DNC candidates as listed by Politics1.com
: average ages of both parties is just over 60 years of age! (GOP = 62, DNC = 61)

: GOP results:
: 11 of 14 candidates were old enough to serve in Vietnam
: 5 of 14 with military experience (score +1, or +2 based on heroics)
: a shocking 7 possible draft dodgers!
: and disgustingly, 50% (7 of 14) are former lawyers!
: Mitt Romney’s Mormon Missionary project in France scored very poorly

= The strongest score = Senator John McCain - silver star, purple heart, POW super-stud
= The weakest score(s) = Rudy Giuliani - draft dodging lawyer!

: DNC results:
: 7 of 9 candidates were old enough to serve in Vietnam
: 3 of 9 with military experience (score +1, or +2 based on heroics)
: a mildy impactful 3 possible draft dodgers!
: and 5 former lawyers and 2 life-long politicans!

= The strongest score = Ret. General Wesley Clark - military genius extraordinaire
= The weakest score(s) = Joe Biden - lawyer, draft dodger, old fart

Of course this rating system is only in beta (1.0). We could incorporate physical attributes (or deformities) and 9/11 heroics to further complex and skew the sarcastic intent of this, the (Anti) Swift Boat Rating System.

All suggestions are most welcome and probably needed.

R

Posted on April 20th, 2007 under 9/11, Vietnam, Wesley Clark, john mccain, rudy guiliani, swift boat, votevets.org •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback