Why deny the obvious? Today's ABCNEWS story alleging that John Kerry told a TV interviewer in 1971 that he threw away his medals during an anti-war protest could be very damaging, whether it ultimately turns out to be accurate or not. (Kaus quite rightly makes the point that the only version of the quote we have seen so far includes a suspicious set of brackets around the word 'I'.) But every campaign has to deal with stories like this at some point, stories that have the potential to do real and lasting damage because they play directly into the other guy's negative message about you. (The Bush campaign, after all, just spent fifty million dollars telling America that John Kerry is an untrustworthy flip-flopper, and according to this AP article, at least some of that message stuck.)

So the real question this morning -- the one that matters to me, anyway -- isn't what John Kerry said or didn't say on a chat show thirty years ago. It's whether his campaign as currently constructed is tough enough to push back, and smart enough to do it quickly and effectively. Either way, we should have a pretty definitive answer in the next day or two. (Kaus link via Glenn Reynolds.)

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