Oliver Willis

Continuing the tradition of Bush, Quayle, and even Clinton, Rudy ducked the draft.

“Any suggestion that he was dodging the draft is totally, factually inaccurate,” said a senior Giuliani campaign adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. “He opposed the war on tactical and strategic grounds.”

But as far back as 1993, when he successfully ran for mayor of New York, Giuliani has been dogged by accusations that he pulled strings to avoid the draft. By contrast, McCain has long been feted as a bona fide war hero for his harrowing stint in a Vietnamese prison.

The thing with this issue to me is, at least many Dems like Clinton opposed the Vietnam war while they avoided the draft, while Republicans support the revisionist history of Vietnam (We just need more surges!) while avoiding service themselves.