Does the memo forgery nonsense help us in the end?

Theoretically, it should be bad for Kerry. But it has NOTHING to do with him. You can't even accuse him of having loose connections to this, unlike * and the Swift Boat Liars.

Simiarly, whether the documents are forged or not, *'s war record is still rather sketchy.

So what it's done is basically kill the smear against Kerry: The Swift Boat Liars. They're old news now. CBS's credibility may take a beating, but in the end, it has little effect on Kerry, and is removing the negative effects on Kerry.

By the time this blows over, the public will be sick of hearing about both Kerry and *'s military service, and neither one will be an issue anymore. So instead * will have to face the facts on the category where he fails miserably: MODERN DAY ISSUES THAT ACTUALLY MATTER TODAY

the media keeps saying they are, and anyone who doesn't pay that much close attention to the news will just assume they are. it'd be interesting to see a poll on whether or not someone thinks they are.

so the documents are, in a sense, completely real.

The originals DID exist at one time. They may still today (if the Bush family hasn't completely erased them)

When they were presented to CBS, they were presented as the memos themselves, not as reproductions. If the source had simply typed up a facsimile and said, "here, this is what that memo woulda looked like" then it's not a forgery.

But that's not what happened. It's good to trash Bush and it's good to bring up the hypocricy of this president lecturing anyone about service to one's country given his shameless dereliction of duty in the 70s. But you got to do these things right if you don't want them to boomerang on us. This was done wrong. I think it's still a net plus for us, but it could've been done better.

How can that NOT help Kerry and hurt Bush?

left Kerry out of it.
He has nothing to do with the fact that shrub did not serve his term in ANG

but how the hell should this be bad for Kerry, theoretically or otherwise. I do not recall him interviewing anyone on 60 Minutes. This is strictly between a monkey, Dan Rather, and the American people.