A few more tidbits before I fly off for China. I probably won’t be doing too much political commentary for the next week or so, unless I can get a good connection to the web at Starbucks (there are 39 in Shanghai–I shouldn’t be surprised) and can surf the web pretty well there. We’ll see.

Barak Obama is going to walk away with this one. Among all Illinois voters, he has a 40-point lead over Alan Keyes, dominating the polling 65-to-24. Obama has an overwhelming 96-to-3 lead over Keyes among black voters, and he even trumps out Keyes amongst moderate conservatives and those who consider themselves “fairly conservative.” Keyes’ only lead over Obama is among the “very conservative,” no surprise there–but even they only favor Keyes by 19%, or 55-to-36. When 36% of ultraconservatives go for the Democratic challenger, you know that you’re an outright loser.

Kerry is getting even more support over the Swift Boat thing: William Rood (now a newspaper editor in Chicago) commanded a swiftboat alongside Kerry on February 28, 1969, when Kerry won the Silver Star. The Swift Boat Vets group attacking Kerry claimed that he exaggerated about what happened, but Rood tells a different story:

Kerry’s critics, armed with stories I know to be untrue, have charged that the accounts of what happened were overblown. The critics have taken pains to say they’re not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us. It’s gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there.

…

Ambushes were a virtual certainty, and that day was no exception.

The difference was that Kerry, who had tactical command of that particular operation, had talked to Droz and me beforehand about not responding the way the boats usually did to an ambush.

We agreed that if we were not crippled by the initial volley and had a clear fix on the location of the ambush, we would turn directly into it, focusing the boats’ twin .50-caliber machine guns on the attackers and beaching the boats. We told our crews about the plan.

The Viet Cong in the area had come to expect that the heavily loaded boats would lumber on past an ambush, firing at the entrenched attackers, beaching upstream and putting troops ashore to sweep back down on the ambush site. Often, they were long gone by the time the troops got there.

The first time we took fire—the usual rockets and automatic weapons—Kerry ordered a “turn 90” and the three boats roared in on the ambush. It worked. We routed the ambush, killing three of the attackers. The troops, led by an Army adviser, jumped off the boats and began a sweep, which killed another half dozen VC, wounded or captured others and found weapons, blast masks and other supplies used to stage ambushes.

Meanwhile, Kerry ordered our boat to head upstream with his, leaving Droz’s boat at the first site.

It happened again, another ambush. And again, Kerry ordered the turn maneuver, and again it worked. As we headed for the riverbank, I remember seeing a loaded B-40 launcher pointed at the boats. It wasn’t fired as two men jumped up from their spider holes.

We called Droz’s boat up to assist us, and Kerry, followed by one member of his crew, jumped ashore and chased a VC behind a hooch—a thatched hut—maybe 15 yards inland from the ambush site. Some who were there that day recall the man being wounded as he ran. Neither I nor Jerry Leeds, our boat’s leading petty officer with whom I’ve checked my recollection of all these events, recalls that, which is no surprise. Recollections of those who go through experiences like that frequently differ.

With our troops involved in the sweep of the first ambush site, Richard Lamberson, a member of my crew, and I also went ashore to search the area. I was checking out the inside of the hooch when I heard gunfire nearby.

Not long after that, Kerry returned, reporting that he had killed the man he chased behind the hooch. He also had picked up a loaded B-40 rocket launcher, which we took back to our base in An Thoi after the operation.

John O’Neill, author of a highly critical account of Kerry’s Vietnam service, describes the man Kerry chased as a “teenager” in a “loincloth.” I have no idea how old the gunner Kerry chased that day was, but both Leeds and I recall that he was a grown man, dressed in the kind of garb the VC usually wore.

The man Kerry chased was not the “lone” attacker at that site, as O’Neill suggests. There were others who fled. There was also firing from the tree line well behind the spider holes and at one point, from the opposite riverbank as well. It was not the work of just one attacker.

Rood backs up Kerry’s story over O’Neil’s, and was in a position to do so. His story comes across as credible, not trying to give an omniscient I-saw-and-know-everything account, but rather a slightly removed view you would expect from someone being where he stood, with caveats and admissions of lack of knowledge. And yet, everything in the article confirms Kerry’s story, and punches yet more holes in O’Neil’s. (The Trib also has posted these photos.)

That’s not stopping the Swift Boat Vets Against Truth from continuing their attacks, however. A second ad is being aired, and this one is even more boldly false, showing video of Kerry on video, apparently accusing all vets of war crimes–when in fact, that video is edited, cutting out the part where Kerry explains that he is reading admissions by other soldiers of what they had done. Kerry is fighting back, not only showing up the lies and deception, but also pointing out the numerous ties between the Swift Boat Vets and the Bush administration, from the money ties to the direct support from the Bush campaign.

Like Bush’s outrageous attacks on John McCain in 2000 (you think John McCain would’ve just sat there for seven minutes?), these attacks on Kerry are having an effect in the polls–but the story is not over. As more and more honorable people come forward to defend Kerry, and as more and more of the SBV claims fall to tattered shreds, one can only hope that this will in some way backfire on Bush–but that is far from certain. Lying smears and nasty attacks all too often work. Had they not, we might have had President McCain, and things would have been a hell of a lot better than they are now.