a perfect storm

SO I SPEND a day out looking for work, an exercise that in this university town makes unsedated oral surgery seem blissful by comparison. And then, I return to find the blogosphere afire with a story that warms the very cockles of my heart.

The media are turning their long knives on each other.

Questions are being raised about the authenticity of newly discovered documents relating to George W. Bush's service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War. […]

First reported by CBS's 60 Minutes, the memos allegedly were found in Killian's personal files. But his family members say they doubt he ever made such documents, let alone kept them. […]

More than half a dozen document experts contacted by ABC News said they had doubts about the memos' authenticity.

“These documents do not appear to have been the result of technology that was available in 1972 and 1973,” said Bill Flynn, one of country's top authorities on document authentication. “The cumulative evidence that's available … indicates that these documents were produced on a computer, not a typewriter.”

Among the points Flynn and other experts noted:

• The memos were written using a proportional typeface, where letters take up variable space according to their size, rather than fixed-pitch typeface used on typewriters, where each letter is allotted the same space. Proportional typefaces are available only on computers or on very high-end typewriters that were unlikely to be used by the National Guard.
  
• The memos include superscript, i.e. the “th” in “187th” appears above the line in a smaller font. Superscript was not available on typewriters.

• The memos included “curly” apostrophes rather than straight apostrophes found on typewriters.

• The font used in the memos is Times Roman, which was in use for printing but not in typewriters. The Haas Atlas — the bible of fonts — does not list Times Roman as an available font for typewriters.

• The vertical spacing used in the memos, measured at 13 points, was not available in typewriters, and only became possible with the advent of computers.

But wait: It gets even better. Charles Johnson of little green footballs was able to recreate the document—by using the default settings on Microsoft Word.

I opened Microsoft Word, set the font to Microsoft’s Times New Roman, tabbed over to the default tab stop to enter the date “18 August 1973,” then typed the rest of the document purportedly from the personal records of the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian.

And my Microsoft Word version, typed in 2004, is an exact match for the documents trumpeted by CBS News as “authentic.”

The spacing is not just similar—it is identical in every respect. Notice that the date lines up perfectly, all the line breaks are in the same places, all letters line up with the same letters above and below, and the kerning is exactly the same. And I did not change a single thing from Word’s defaults; margins, type size, tab stops, etc. are all using the default settings. The one difference (the “th” in “187th” is slightly lower) is probably due to a slight difference between the Mac and PC versions of the Times New Roman font, or it could be an artifact of whatever process was used to artificially “age” the document. (Update: I printed the document and the “th” matches perfectly in the printed version. It’s a difference between screen and printer fonts.)

You owe it to yourself to go compare the images.

But wait: It gets even better. (Maybe.) Via Ace of Spades comes this sordid little tale.

More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian. […]

“More than a couple people heard about the papers,” says the DNC staffer. “I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much. When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity.” […]

A CBS producer, who initially tipped off The Prowler about the 60 Minutes story, says that despite seeking professional assurances that the documents were legitimate, there was uncertainty even among the group of producers and researchers working on the story.

“The problem was we had one set of documents from Bush's file that had Killian calling Bush 'an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot.' And someone who Killian said 'performed in an outstanding manner.' Then you have these new documents and the tone and content are so different.”

The CBS producer said that some alarms bells went off last week when the signatures and initials of Killian on the documents in hand did not match up with other documents available on the public record, but producers chose to move ahead with the story. “This was too hot not to push. If there were doubts, those people didn't show it,” says the producer, who works on a rival CBS News program.

Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign. “There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more information,” says the producer. “If that's the case, then we're bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries.”

This last story seems too good to be true. But in the end, if the documents indeed prove to be forged (of which I'm now persuaded), and if CBS indeed procured them from Democratic operatives…Well. Then this election is over.

The irony is that the Democratic Party—from Terry McAuliffe to Tom Harkin to the sorry presidential candidate himself—beat the “Bush AWOL” meme into the ground months ago, with precious little to show for it. (Mostly, of course, because the calumny was baseless.) But like toddlers fascinated by a hot stove, they just couldn't keep their fingers away.

And now, the best-case scenario for Kerry and the DNC is that they will never again be able to bring up the Texas Air National Guard without being dismissed as hacks. In the worst case, the, uh, web of connections between the Senator's campaign and certain major news organizations will be revealed, to the consternation of all parties involved.

Much, much more at Power Line. And Ace of Spades HQ. And LGF. And though I'm not one for weblog triumphalism, it's safe to conclude that Dan Rather would not be feeling quite as shell-shocked in the wee hours of this morning had not certain bloggers spent a few hours doing what CBS News' vaunted investigators failed to even attempt.

I am not sure this will sink the Kerry campaign, but I wonder when people will start to really consider all the inconsistencies, lack of vision and a clear plan, etc. The polls truly concern me. Is the voting public either so polarized or so dense that they are unable to understand that Kerry really doesn't provide a clear and concise alternative... an improvement of any kind?

Have faith, bro: the numbers have turned and they don't appear to be going back.