Known unknowns...

One of the reasons some folks point to when they cancel panic about the Swift Boat Liars for Bush brouhaha is a supposed drop in veteran support for Kerry. A CBS News poll shows that Bush has established a 58 to 35% advantage among those who've served. Now, I have real problems drawing conclusions from the samples of self IDed veterans who are abstracted from general polling samples, since as a fractional element of a poll, the MOE is elevated (though that's often not reported) and the veterans sample, being discovered, as it were, rather than designed, may offer other barriers to accurate analysis.

But if the CBS number is taken as a given, who's to say the SBLB are responsible? Especially when, according to a post at DailyKos, a Rasmussen Reports survey released August 5, before the latest slander had a chance to enchant the punditocracy and panic the blogosphere, produced an identical report.

We definitely have work to do among veterans, and many other parts of the electorate. The measurement of how much work, though, is actually pretty sketch and apparently consistent with the pre-slander situation. And the tide is turning, and swamping the Swifty's raft of lies.

The road to victory is still paved with the same basic steps.

Work hard. Fight back. And, really, don't panic.