As it should be clear to anyone with an IQ, there really is nothing to the Bush AWOL story. Even the Kerry camp is aware of that, which is why they are tapering off their language and running from the issue.
You heard it hear first: Kerry knows there is nothing to the charge, he was only using the issue and the press to demonstrate his bona fides to the angry left in order to steal them away from Dean and the others. Now, he has sealed the nomination, and he didn’t have to make any ugly lurches to the left policy wise. Only the kool-aid drinkers like Atrios and Kevin Drum think there is anything to the charges, and those guys have been pining breathlessly for a scandal, any scandal, for thrree years now.
This was pretty smart, except for the fact that Kerry is now winning the nomination without having been battle-tested. Already his past positions are starting to surface, and Rove and Co. have not even started to think about him.