I think that this is going to rapidly turn into a fiasco for Bush, and Kerry is going, "please don't throw me in that briar patch, brer fox." I think the media is going to find more connections between BC-04 and the SBVFTT, and find more and more lies from SBVFTT (check out how John O'Neill told Nixon he was in Cambodia at http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0408/24/asb.00.html).
I think eventually Bush will have to disown the ads. I'm quite frankly surprised that his campaign doesn't seem to recognize that, but I guess maybe they're so desperate they're drawing at any straw they can get.
Gotta agree with Dave, Bush stepped in something pretty stinky and it's being thoroughly exposed for the shit it is. Heh. Don't think he will be able to get it off his shoe-gonna be tracking it all the way back to Crawford.
I don't see the eyespot quite like that. It goes beyond the briar patch. I think Rove walked right into a bright shining ambush. He went into standard family MO, expecting standard wuss opposition response (ie, ineffectual-- cf Dole, McCain, et. al.). Instead he got a carefully laid ambush that can have very important strategic consequences and is close to succeeding on that level.
The biggest game in town is to get the press out of thrall to Rove. Now how did that enterprising press corps manage not only to dig up the inconsistencies, etc., of the swifties themselves, but the links between them and the Bush campaign machine? Well may you ask. Are they really all that enterprising, or need we look further than Kerry's people?
And look at the dynamics now. The press has a "gotcha" story on Bush's gang. They've found things out, they've uncovered "inconsistencies," they've ferreted out links that they were assured weren't there. They *love* this stuff, it's what they live for. And it bids fair to be their official story line-- the default they always return to-- on Bush: shadowy front groups, shadowy backers, won't stand up and say what he's all about. It's a huge reversal of the "straight-talker" myth they've been writing.
This one affair won't make the press honest overnight. Addictions are hard to break. But what's it worth to give them a story line that makes them look and feel good and is true besides?
So far as I can see, this has been played brilliantly. They drew enemy fire, patiently let them walk into the ambush, and are now springing it on them in slow motion. It looks ugly, but getting control of the media narrative out of Unka Karl's hands is one of the single most important tasks of this campaign and the subsequent presidency. That's well worth taking a few small hits and alienating a few voters, in my view.