One of the contributors at PoliPundit posted the following (polipundit . com/wp-comments-popup.php?p=4727):

It appears that John Kerry is working overtime to do or say anything to convince voters that he is a man. This week alone he (supposedly) killed a goose, in order to be seen as a he-man hunter... Does he not realize when he says things like this and when he dresses up in costume for a photo op, that at least half of America just laughs because he is so obviously phony? Even those who plan to vote for him can't believe for one second that he would be tougher on terrorism than George Bush has been...

In a last desperate attempt to save putative conservatives from looking like absolutely foolish, childish, braindead, authoritarian cult members, I posted the following comment:

Bush is the real man in this race! Remember, he's the one that slayed the evil dragon of Aragnook!

Bush is the one that stared The Evil One in the eye at the battle of Treshtorg!

Bush is our exalted, manly leader! All hail Bush, the exalted one!

Oh, sorry, got carried away with mythologizing there.

Now, the genesis of this comment - if I may mix my religious metaphors - was partially brought about by the urban legend posted elsewhere on that fine site:

Hat tip to Kitty (myerskatt . blogspot . com) who posted this interesting tidbit from FrontPageMag.com (frontpagemag . com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15626).

Why is our vaccine made in the UK and not the US? The major pharmaceutical companies in the US provided almost 90% of the nations flu vaccine at one time. They did this despite a very low profit margin for the product. Basically, they were doing us a favor...

Since UK and Canadian laws prohibit such frivolous law suits UK and Canadian companies began selling the vaccine in the US. By the way - the lawyer that represented the man in the flu shot lawsuit was a young ambulance chaser by the name of John Edwards.

Urban Legend UPDATE: Smart reader, Myria, provided this link (snopes . com/politics/business/flushot.asp) indicating that the story posted at FrontPageMag in their "Front Page Articles" section is most likely an urban legend.

UPDATE II: More on that here (eyeontheworld . typepad . com/home/2004/10/liability_lawsu.html), including what Snopes got wrong.

Of course, what Snopes didn't get wrong was that John Edwards was never involved in this; if he had been, we would have heard about it well before now and Snopes research failed to provide any indication of his involvement.

It's a shame to see David Horowitz engaging in spreading urban legends. Whoever posts the entries for their "War Blog" page, it's still his site, and it's his responsibility. Yet, as of post time the entry is still there and without a link to Snopes.

With others this mythologizing and spreading of urban legends is not so much of a surprise.

And, of course, urban legends and mythology are about the only way Bush can campaign, as campaigning on his actual record doesn't seem like such a wise strategery.

(Note that despite the possibility that the VICP doesn't cover the flu vaccine, the Snopes article does have some interesting links.)