Who are you, and what have you done with John Kerry?

Last night at my CAD class, I saw a hand-made sign in the rear window of an auto in the parking lot. It said, "Kerry: Wrong in 1970, Wrong Now." Just before I went into my philosophical mode of "there is no right or wrong" (which is the ultimate truth, but that's a different blog), I thought, "Kerry: Right in 1970, Wrong Now." This morning, I see that Zeynep at Under the Same Sun has it spelled out quite nicely.

...Just how did that young man die, and who is this opportunist, war-mongering, death-celebrating politician I can't bear to listen to, masquerading around in the remmants of that man's shell? I really recommend reading his testimony in full, and reading it often. Then he spoke a deep truth -- now he talks about "Iraqification" the same way politicians of his day spoke of Vietnamization, which that Kerry understood perfectly well:

Now we are told that the men who fought there must watch quietly while American lives are lost so that we can exercise the incredible arrogance of Vietnamizing the Vietnamese.

And the Kerry-then, speaking on behalf of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, proclaimed their desire to fight one last battle, a noble one unlike the ignominious one they had been pushed into:

We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service as easily as this administration has wiped their memories of us. But all that they have done and all that they can do by this denial is to make more clear than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission, to search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbarous war, to pacify our own hearts, to conquer the hate and the fear that have driven this country these last 10 years and more and so when, in 30 years from now, our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say "Vietnam" and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory but mean instead the place where America finally turned and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning.

...I'd like to ask the current Democratic Party presidential nominee, also named John Kerry, another question. How do you kill your own soul for a shot at power? I would have hoped that it were not possible, that once awakened, a conscience could not be discarded as if it were just another empty campaign promise by just another power-hungry politician.

I would have liked to think that, too.

Sadly, sadly, I'm afraid that one of Zeynep's commenters has the only rational reason I've yet seen to vote for Mr. Kerry....

Still, better than Bush, but what sort of standard is that? Here's the best argument for Kerry I can come up with: "Vote Kerry--he'll be easier to impeach."