I am not arguing his record, I freely admit he served in VietNam, was wounded and received medals while serving and was honorably discharged.

All I am saying is that taken as part of his whole life, it wasn't the best part to build a presidential campaign around. He was 57 when he ran for president and if those four months of service were the high point of this life, the events that best showed beyond a doubt that he was the best candidate to be POTUS, he probably shouldn't have run in the first place.

"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it." --Thomas Jefferson