The American Spectator

Pow indeed.

There’s a phrase that describes men who feel compelled to claim that they served with the Green Berets, Navy Seals, or CIA special ops units when they had not. It’s called the Stolen Valor Syndrome.

THEN THERE’S THE MATTER of whether or not Senator Kerry actually ran the Boston Marathon. On more than one occasion he says he has, and the way he’s phrased it, “my first Boston Marathon,” indicates that he’d done the feat more than once.

But, of course, no one has ever found a record of this, not in the newspapers, not in the various photographs of the young Kerry, not even, especially not even, in the records of the Boston Athletic Association, the group that organizes and sponsors the Boston Marathon.

When queried by e-mail about Senator Kerry’s marathoning, Jack Fleming, the director of communications of the Boston Athletic Association gave the following response.

“It was reported (Summer 2004) to the B.A.A. by aides of the John F. Kerry campaign for President of the United States that the Democratic nominee ran the Boston Marathon in the late 1970s [1977, 1978 or 1979 most likely]. He reportedly ran as an unofficial entrant and finished the entire 26.2-mile race (i.e., without an official bib number); as an unofficial participant, his performance (name, place, time) would not appear among the official record or in any results book publication.”

Don’t you love that phrase “he reportedly ran”?

So, in other words, in the Summer of 2004, as questions about Senator Kerry’s veracity grew, John Kerry’s campaign aides contacted the Boston Athletic Association and told them that the Senator ran the race sometime in the “late 70s,” but not officially, although he did finish, just that you didn’t see him do it….honest.

By the way, for the record, in January of 1993, President Bush completed the Houston Marathon in exactly 3:44:52, a respectable 8:30 pace. You can look it up.

WHY DOES JOHN KERRY feel the need to brag on his imaginary exploits? Is he so insecure? I mean the man actually does have some accomplishments. He has been a United States Senator for the last 20 years, although a singularly undistinguished one.

But then again, being a Senator is plainly not proof against puffery. Case in point, Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, who claims to have flown numerous combat missions over Vietnam, but actually only occasionally ferried planes into the country from his more relaxed station in Japan. Harkin has recently taken to calling himself a “Vietnam era veteran”

Speaking of flying, did you know that John Kerry claims to be a stunt pilot, (Atlanta Journal Constitution, August 3, 2004) rated to fly everything from seaplanes to the Millennium Falcon?

But who knows if that’s really true or not. At this point I just can’t be bothered running down every unsubstantiated claim Senator von Munchausen makes. I’ve got more important things to do with my time, like trying to invent a carburetor that gets 200 miles to the gallon.

My ironclad policy is this: when, towards the end of the evening, the pompous drunk on the next barstool turns to you and claims to have dated Morgan Fairchild, as both Senator Kerry and Jon Lovitz’s Saturday Night Live character Tommy Flanagan the Compulsive Liar have done, you just shrug your shoulders, say, “Yeah, that’s the ticket,” and turn away.