Crossed Fingers

Reportedly, CBS will announce today that they concede the infamous Bush AWOL documents are forgeries.

Once that happens, the story will then become the providence of the documents. Many believe that CBS has been slow to declare documents forgeries because then they would be obligated to say who they got them from. Speculation is rife CBS does not want to reveal the source because it is a high ranking member of the Democratic party like Max Clealand. Such a scandal would most likely destroy the Kerry campaign.

I typing with crossed-fingers now hoping that no major Democrat was involved. I think it would be a disaster long-term for the nation and for the policies that I support if Kerry goes down due a scandal, especially a scandal that he was unaware of. There are two major negative outcomes from Bush winning by default.

First, winning by default can seriously undermine a winner's mandate. It's hard to claim you have widespread support for your policies when you won office because the other guy didn't show up or disappeared. Bush needs a firm mandate to finish the war and to advance the ideas of the "Ownership Society."

Second, the Democratic party needs some serious self-reflection and reform. It needs new 21st century ideas and new leaders. Getting trounced in a fair fight will prompt this reform while losing due to scandal will delay it. It will be easy for democratic stalwarts to say, "We would have won if only it were not for the scandal."

I think everybody assumes that the source of the forgeries is rooting for Kerry for whatever reason. I just hope like hell it's nobody on his payroll.

(cross posted at Chicago Boyz)