Rasmusen Weblog

(1) Page 130 says that Bush volunteered to go to Vietnam, when his National Guard unit was asked. He was turned down, as being insufficiently experienced. Thus, his attitude was similar to Kerry's. They both signed up for a "safe" service-- the National Guard and the Navy-- and then later volunteered for slightly less safe Vietnam duty. The difference is that Kerry was accepted for it, and served a few months in Vietnam, before getting out as quickly as he could.

Why did Bush's volunteering not come up during the campaign? I suppose because Bush wanted to keep the topic off of his National Guard service generally.

(2) Page 131 says that Mary Mapes sent an internal CBS email saying that Bush's National Guard unit had no waiting list, and did have vacancies. There were indeed vacancies for pilots in the National Guard-- though there was a waiting list for certain other kinds of positions.