Aaron Okin Columnist

This week, as President Bush started and finished a bus tour of Midwestern battleground states, and his challenger, John Kerry, took to the airwaves with a $25 million advertising campaign, Americans all over the country have gotten a taste of the intensive campaigning that will likely last to an election that is less than six months away.

It's unfortunate for the Democrats, though, that so many millions of useful campaign dollars are being drained into the weak Kerry effort. Beyond the wasting of funds, it is really quite hard to swallow that this senator from Massachusetts has what it takes to be the president of the United States, especially in light of some hiccups he has had to deal with and attempt to overcome during the past couple of weeks.

These occurrences are hiccups in the sense that they were quite important from a media and publicity standpoint for a couple of days but then later subsided as more important and disturbing stories took them out of the headlines.

And in reality, that's probably the only reason that they have gone away. They are significant flaws in the Democratic strategy and things that should be kept in mind when going to the polls in November. It remains to be seen whether Kerry's campaign will be able to sufficiently deflect criticisms that are bound to be made when dealing with such glaring disparities in policy and personal stories.

Much has been made of military records in this election cycle, even going back to before the Democratic nominee was decided on. During wartime, when defense and the well-being of American soldiers is an issue of vital interest for everyone, a focus like this would be expected. While no one would dispute that it is admirable for an individual to join the military in a time like Vietnam in order to serve one's country, his current campaign's dependence on that decision of his seems rather troubling based on the activism that took place upon his return.

Yes, he went and served overseas and did it of his own accord. Clearly that affords him credibility upon returning to point out the many problems that undoubtedly occurred. But now, does it mean that three decades after the fact it is right and sensible to switch his views and overwrite his public statements in the 1970s on the brutality of the war, making claims that American troops committed atrocities and backtracking on his position that he was one such troop?

One of the new ads lists some of the medals he received over the course of his tour of duty in Vietnam - medals that may or may not have been thrown over a fence on Capitol Hill. It depends on which sound bites you go by: the one in 1971 when the incident was fresh in his mind or the ones from 2004 when there is an election to be won and having the public perceive his military past as admirable is key to gaining eminence on issues of national defense.

It's unfortunate that valorous military service has to be overshadowed by such disparities in accounts from the same person, but it would be even more unfortunate if the American people were not exposed to the reality.

The Kerry Web site makes the claim, "Throughout his career, he has always taken tough positions and stuck by them - even when they weren't popular." Apparently "throughout his career" extends only to the beginning of the 2004 election campaign season. Since then, his public statements have been one flip-flop after another. He has taken both sides of his military record, placed controls on his supporters for which things to attack the president on and then broken those rules himself to defame Bush's Vietnam-era service. And then he has gone from opposing Israel's disengagement plan (when speaking to an Arab-American interest group) to being an avid supporter who pledges to fight for it if elected president (in front of the Anti-Defamation League).

Perhaps the most amusing reversal over the past weeks has been his statement before Michigan voters that he owns several fuel-guzzling SUVs and minivans only to say later, on Earth Day, that he doesn't have an SUV but that his family does. On Monday, Bush quipped, "He doesn't have an SUV, except when he's in Michigan," to illustrate the lengths Kerry will go to pick up votes.

The reality, though, is that he doesn't have a prayer in November unless he gets some facts straight and builds a platform that is more at odds with Bush than with itself.

Aaron Okin is a regional development and political science junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.