Paul Farhi of the Washington Post has a dreadful article in today’s paper comparing the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth to the Willie Horton campaign. I find his piece - which he passes off as a “news” article, not an op-ed - to be only slightly more convincing than that silly email yougot a few years ago discussing the supposed parallels between Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy. Here are the parallels, in nutshells:

• Both were political ads.
• Both ran on a handful of carefully selected TV stations whose call letters start with either “K” or “W.” However, the Willie Horton ads did not run on the Internet which Al Gore had yet to create.
• Both broadcasts involved the use of electricity.
• Both ads benefitted some guy named Bush who was running for President, and whose current job description included the word “president.”
• Both ads were put out by people with strong opinions, “true believers” if you will.
• Both ads were put out by groups that were officially independent from the benefitted political campaign, but in both cases, at least one Republican worked for both groups. Granted, in 1988 that one guy was Lee Atwater, while in 2004 it was some low-level volunteer you’ve never heard of. Details, schmetails.
• Both ads addressed issues that had previously been perceived either as that candidate’s strong suit, or as a point on which was vulnerable.
• Both ads targeted a weenie liberal from Massachusetts. One weenie smiled inanely for the camera while riding around in a tank. The other smiled inanely for the camera while dressed in an anti-contamination suit that made him look like the Easter Bunny. [In fairness to the latter weenie, and given my new status as the debunker of all debunkers, I must stress that there is no truth whatsoever to the rumor that Mr. Kerry, while dressed up in his infamous bunny suit, sang "Here comes Johnny Cottontail, stumblin' down the campaign trail, flippity floppity Bush is here to stay." There is no evidence he actually sang that. None.]

There is, however, one real parallel between the the Willie Horton ads in 1988 and the SwiftVets ads today. Farhi, being part of that parallel, overlooked it completely. Patterico nailed it, however.