There's an e-mail message making the rounds that points out that John Kerry's service record starts with the words, "I request duty in Vietnam," whereas George W. Bush's includes the line, "Do not volunteer for overseas duty."
Now, I happen to think that very little that either man did in the seventies is relevant to what kind of president he'd be in the next four years. In fact, I doubt there's a person in their (or my) age bracket who doesn't have a few 30-year-old deeds or statements that they should be ashamed of, and I'm suspicious of being urged to vote for or against someone because of what they did in 1971.
However, I do think that if those service records were reversed — if Bush had Kerry's and Kerry had Bush's — Bush supporters would be telling us the following: That Bush is a real man, Kerry is a wimp, and they don't need to know anything more about either candidate to know who to vote for.