John Kerry finally sits down for an interview with Time Magazine and the lesson is that he's waited long enough from the allegations of the Swift Boat Veterans that he doesn't need to worry about any serious questions about any of the allegations against him. He can just shrug them off with a passing attack on Bush for not doing more to disavow these ads and with a reference to his own toughness by saying, "I've been in worse situations in my life." Gag.

This is what the media does. They ask vague enough questions and let the guy get away with slogans and generalities. There is no follow up or sense of minimal research behind the interview. If it's going to be like this, Kerry can sit down for dozens of these interviews. Perhaps, at the height of the furor over the SBVT ads there might have been some specific questions, but now that he's waited it out, he can be confident that there will be no questions that he needs to fear.

Imagine what an interview would be like if a blogger could get to talk to him. There would be specific questions framed by facts. They could point out inconsistencies in what the guy has said before and then try to pin him down. They could ask him about all the information he is refusing to release. Instead, we get this mush from Time.

Meanwhile, Ann Althouse comments on the implication that Kerry leaves that he would convene a meeting of moderate Muslim leaders and get them to redefine their religion. Yup. It's up to the American president to get Muslims to change their faith. Sure, that will work.

Ann has her nominations for the least believable assertions in the interview. Here is my nomination for most nauseating remark.

I'm confident that my record of fighting for this country since I was a young man is going to eclipse the disastrous choices that have been made by George Bush.

He still can't get off of Vietnam. I just saw Tucker Carlson on Reliable Sources say that he interviewed Kerry 2 1/2 years ago and Kerry spent the whole time talking about Vietnam. The guy is rather demented on the subject. There was a Boston Globe story (that I don't have the time to look for so just bear with me) that told of the tapes that Kerry has that he taped over there and how he watches those tapes obsessively, over and over. This is a rather sick puppy. And we don't need him as Commander-in-Chief.