When you pay attention to a person, the two of you become partners of sorts, each moving in step to the actions and reactions of the other. In the process you lose your initiative. It is a dynamic of all interactions: By acknowledging other people, even if only tof ight with them you open yourself to their influence. [...]

Contempt is the prerogative of the king. Where his eyes turn, what he decides to see, is what has reality; what he ignores and turns his back on is as good as dead.

— Robert Greene. Law 36: Disdain things you cannot have: ignoring them is the best revenge. From The 48 Laws of Power

It isn’t often that I will give advice to John Kerry, but he needs to let the Swifties talk all they want about him. As Laughing Wolf notes, the army of lawyers and Kerry’s efforts to keep the Siwftboat Veterans For Truth advertisment (which can be seen here; though I must warn that it streams the moment a connection is made) makes it a much bigger problem than just letting it be.

I think that the Swifties ad is none of the White House’s business at this point. Yes, it hurts Kerry. But until it could be proven that this is an act of the White House at one point or another (and I don’t mean by the simple virtue of GWB being in it), this fight is between the Swifties and Kerry. So when I found out (thanks to Mama M.) that the White House has already offered up its testicles by McClellan’s statement today, saying that they “have been very clear in stating that, you know, we will not and we have not and we will not question Senator Kerry’s service in Vietnam,” I was torn between approval and disapproval.

No, Lapsed Randian, this is not a Soulah moment for GWB. In fact there are no more Souljah moments for anyone in this campaign. Triangulation is mere political posturing; Bill Clinton’s Souljah moment is a one-in-a-million stunt that cannot be pulled yet again, on account of it having been pulled already. The only benefit that I see from the White House’s statement is that it underlines the Democrats’tactic of questioning the President’s service. It is a masterful power play to go ahead and simply say that Kerry’s service is not an issue that needs questioning, because it further makes John Kerry a petty, nostalgic and power-hungry campaigner for who today’s issues do not matter.

John Kerry brought the Swifties ad on himself. He has been, all the while, boxing at shadows towards attacks on his patriotism, when the White House has never done so. Though I think the White House’s reaction was classy (and powerful, to an extent), I think the best reaction was no reaction at all. The American people are not stupid. Let them see, and think for themselves. And that advice goes for both GWB and Kerry.