"If you think JFK supported the continuation and escalation of the Vietnam War, you better get yourself a history lesson.

-- Dan"

"In September of 1963, President Kennedy declared in an interview, “In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it -the people of Vietnam against the Communists... But I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw. That would be a great mistake.... [The United States] made this effort to defend Europe. Now Europe is quite secure. We also have to participate—we may not like it—in the defense of Asia.” J.F.K

A few weeks later, on November 1, 1963, in a coup given tacit approval by the Kennedy administration, the South Vietnamese government was overthrown."

President Kennedy increased America's troop number from 500 to 16,000.

Dan,

The above quotes are from the JFK library historical resources section, and the troop increase figure is from wikipedia. History lesson taken. Revision below:

John F Kennedy:The continuation and escalation of Vietnam War, proxy wars in Laos, Cambodia, Guatemala, Haiti, Lebanon, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, cold war and Cuba!

As you can see I mistakenly left out the bay of pigs and the more obvious cold war with China and the Soviet Union. My bad.

Franklin Roosevelt: WWII

Harry S Truman: Korean War. Greek Coup. Proxy wars and insurgencies in China, Tibet, Taiwan, Burma, Syria, Peru, Ukraine, Thailand, Albania, Poland, Cuba, Guatemala, Ecuador.

John F Kennedy:The continuation and escalation of Vietnam War, proxy wars in Laos, Cambodia, Guatemala, Haiti, Lebanon, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile.

Lyndon B Johnson:The continuation and escalation of Vietnam. Proxy wars in Laos, Cambodia, Guatemala, Haiti, Lebanon, El Salvador.

Jimmy Carter:Proxy wars in Nicaragua, Iran, Guatemala, Haiti, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan.

William J Clinton: Croatia,Bosnia,Serbia.

If this is what the cut and run party of peaceniks looks like, I'd hate to see the American party of war.

I could have sworn I saw a front page article on Salon this morning that proclaimed that Edwards was suspending his campaign. Anyone got a screen capture?

You are probably the only media who bothered to look up the Denver Daily News.

The "Jew Jersy" error is actually credited to DDN editor Tad Rickman, and it should be noted that he was very apologetic and humble about the mistake and it should not be implied that the publication is the type to intentionally print slurs disguised as typos.

The newsroom has a staff of two. Tad Rickman (editor) and Peter Marcus (reporter). Perhaps they could add Jeff Gannon to the crack reporting staff. He resigned from that other 'major publication' Talon News, so he is most likely looking for work.

"It's not wag the dog unless we let it be."

Meanwhile the mainstream media and yourself are evaluating Democrat candidate's positions on the morality of being gay, which I might point out has nothing to do with government, instead of asking the leader of our armed forces why it has taken the Pentagon until yesterday to declare Iraq as being in a civil war, or asking why the shoddy treatment of wounded vets, or asking where the billions of dollars for reconstruction went, or about the no bid contracts, or how many people are actually going to be required for the surge, or the time line and mark of success for the surge, or why the budget for defense doesn't included numbers for the long term care of the war wounded, or what is the short and long term mission scope of the Iraq war, or what are the weak points of our national defense as pointed out in the 911 commission report and how are they being addressed, or what is our military strategy with dealing with emerging nuclear powers of Iran and North Korea...I could go on but I fear I could break a Guinness record for longest run on sentence and bring unwanted notoriety to the Salon letters section.

I don't think you understand the meaning of the phrase "wag the dog."

I just read a letter to the editor of another publication in which the writer stated they were previously in the military and their spouse was currently in. They went on about how the health care system was shoddy, how their barracks before shipping over to Iraq were rat infested, how everyone was appalled at the services and equipment they were receiving. The writer then went on to explain that these deficiencies and problems were the result of Clinton's cuts to the defense spending budget.

Senator Clinton was absolutely right to deflect this. Pace wags the dog and does the typical republican shift to the gay issue, and instead of him catching all the flack, somehow the democratic candidates must now appropriately address his comments. WTF?

How does this shift to a problem for our candidates and why is Salon falling for this trick?

I would like all of our candidates to come forward and state that they will not address any issues concerning gay marriage, gay rights, or morality. Take this hot button issue away from the republicans. Quite frankly these issues rank about 100 on the list of things that need to be addressed by our government in this time of constitutional crisis. Shore up the party, get a democrat elected as president and then incrementally address these issues. I don't give a flying fuck what a candidate's opinion on a moral issue is. Leave to moralizing to the republicans and let their hypocrisies speak for themselves.

I just wanted to add my kudos to your well written and researched journalism. Keep up the good work. Your efforts are appreciated.