The American Spectator

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Steve Hayes br> Utah br> average person /p>

Mr. Hynes' article on Kerry's response to the Swift Boat Veterans' advertisements was interesting and informative. My personal (nonpolitical) opinion is that Mr. Kerry could have minimized the increasingly large problem that this group poses by ignoring it (a point made by experts in the article).

However, I also believe that Kerry very likely couldn't have ignored the Swift Boat Vets. I mean that he was psychologically unable to do so.

If, as is charged, he went to Vietnam for "political" reasons, and if, as charged, he "gamed" the system to acquire his medals, (not to mention the very real possibility that he married -- twice -- for something other than love), then we know that, on a deep psychological level, Kerry is a phony with a very insubstantial personality. I don't mean that he's insane, or even neurotic; only that the public attributes of his personality are built on half- (or un-) truths. Thus, he has numerous reasons to feel insecure about his life, and particularly, his putative heroism.

My guess is that, on some level, the Swift Boat Vets knew that their "comrade" Kerry would not be able to resist putting of some sort of defense, no matter how weak. He simply must take the bait if only to stop the psychological leaking. Too much in his shallow life is at stake here. He's not just the normal, run-of-the-mill mendacious politician, he's a guy whose entire identity appears to be formed from lies, misrepresentations and faux-heroism. Such a shallow person must respond to these very effective attacks, simply to keep his personality together.

Contrast him with Clinton who lied, but who didn't seem to really care when he was caught out. He accepted his own identity as a stranger to the truth.

p>OK. Enough with the pop-psychotherapy. Commendations all around. Read the website daily and the magazine religiously. br> -- John Shea /p> p> Doesn't this man ever face the facts honestly? First he blames Richard Nixon for placing him in Cambodia for Christmas when Nixon wasn't even calling the shots yet and now he blames President Bush for attacks on him concerning the Swift boat issue when the people who are saying this are as easily identified as Lyndon Johnson was when reviewing who was where and when in Cambodia. What an idiot. br> --

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