John Moore thinks that the whole "Bush was AWOL" meme was a trap set by the White House, that the Left eagerly stepped into.

After all the brewhaha over Bush's Air National Guard service, I think the Bush campaign's trap has finally been sprung.

What trap, you say? Kerry has some very damaging history regarding his behavior after he returned from Vietnam. But attacking this is tricky, as it can be dismissed with the line "but that was thirty years ago!"

Now the Democrats have been attacking Bush's record from the same period, angering many veterans and current service members, and have opened up the whole subject of the Vietnam era behavior of the candidates.

The White House strung them along... a little info, then some stonewalling. Then a little more. Finally a total release of records that utterly exhonerates the president.

Yep, that's pretty much how it went, only much more slanderous and full of vile bullshit (a democrat staple). Next?

This trick required the national press to be true to form - spending all of their efforts trying to dig up dirt rather than exculpatory information. Fortunately, they fell for it.

It required the Democrats to be true to form, failing to understand the sensitivities of those with military service backgrounds (and their families') and exposing an instinctive loathing of the military.

I will say that this caught a lot of Donks with their pants down and their asses hanging in the breeze. The 4-F was busted with his "Deserter" comment. Terry McAwful looks like an even BIGGER piece of partisan shit. And good 'ol John Fonda Kerry makes statements that causes entire brigades of National Guard members to damn near self-combust with rage.

How do we know that the trap has finally been sprung?

At the Daytona 500, 2 days after the final records were released, Bush was asked if he wanted to drive one of the cars.

He said "When I served in the National Guard, I was a fighter pilot. I like speed..."

In other words, he's not afraid of this issue. He's proud of his service (as he should be). And now the coast is clear for the counter-attack on Benedict Arnold John Kerry.

And that does tie in with Tim's "Bush Returns Fire" post down below, doesn't it!

Wolf 2-4 to Wolfpack 1: Fire at Will.