My take on the two is: how could we put someone like Kerry in charge of the military, even though he served at one time, especially taking into account how he comported himself after his service in Viet Nam?
His demonstrated attitude toward the military is more dangerous than Clinton's was. Clinton "loathed" the military, and treated it as his own personal pizza delivery service; but Kerry consorted with the enemy during time of war, and called his fellow soldiers "war criminals".
Bush only dodged combat duty to fly airplanes. I don't agree with what Bush did, but it was nowhere near as bad as what Kerry did.

Give me a real statesman anytime, but how long has it been since one has gotten in under the radar?

I don't think we will get any real choices until we can make serving in the government a job available only to non-politicians. It seems like an impossible dream.