I'm convinced the whole purpose of this hoax is to distract the electorate off of Kerry's Viet Nam misdeeds. The desperate and angry Dem's will stoop to anything at this point. Dan Rather as one last contribution to the cause, will retire after this intentional hoax is revealed. The Dems know as long as the story stays on the frontpage, a few precious votes will be swayed over to Kerry's side.
We need to get back to Kerry's fraudulent early buggout, Silver Star Citation Forgeries, aiding the enemy and planning the assasination of US Senators.
But the whole purpose of the Viet Nam discussion is for the Kerry campaign to avoid talking about his miserable Senate record.
Look, people like us on FR are quite interested in this story not because it will have any major effect on the election but because it confirms the suspected relationship between the press and the socialists. We would all love to see the MSM get it handed to them and for this particular "journalist" to get bounced. However, the general voting public is not paying that much attention to this story.
The Kerry Vietnam campaign centerpiece is also a distraction. He chose to run on his military record knowing that there could be problems. Why would he do this? The only plausible explanation in my opinion is that he did not want to have to defend his Senate record. As long as he talks about events from 40 years ago which can be difficult to accurately recreate, he doesn't have to talk about his political career. His record is so bad that he'd rather defend himself against all this other BS.
Either way, however, his chances for election have always been marginal.
It was a tit for tat, but not merely meant as a distraction. It was and is meant to draw blood. Even a hoax can draw blood, as you noted.
That the DNC was ready with comments the instant the story broke, "Bush has to answer the charges," is evidence of coordination between the DNC and the media. I wonder about the timestamp on DNC Talking Points memos covering the airing of the CBS report.
Not to worry. FR can fight wars on many, many fronts. Besides, our allies, the Swifties, are sinking the Kerry campaign's "attack boats" faster than the Kerryites can launch them.