Discussion Thread: Kerry's Appearance on GMA Regarding Medals

Good Morning America - ABC News

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Let's see if I can kick this off.

During the promo at the beginning of the show, where he was standing by live in West Virginia, and throughout the interview itself, Kerry tried hard to keep this huge "what me worry?" smile plastered on his face. He coupled it with numerous condescending head shakes that seemed to imply "these poor benighted fools who so miserably misunderstand the greatness that is John Kerry."

[texasbluebell]

Something else is going on.

Yes, Kerry's being removed on orders from the big boss Bill C, to make way for the little woman. There's no one else who can step in at this point on the dem side.

[prairiebreeze]

agreed

[MamaLucci]

I'm listening to Rush, and what struck me was that Charlie Gibson did not correct Kerry the countless times that he charged that "this comes from Karen Hughes...this comes from Republicans" he even once claimed it was coming from "this President".....Gibson SHOULD have said "No, Senator, this comes from an ABC News investigation."

[DCPatriot]

How "difficult" would it be for a sitting United States Senator...close friends of Teddy Kennedy, to have replacement medals handed over years later.

Gee, they were stolen and I'd like copies...etc.

[colorado tanker]

His Clintonectomy won't hurt much. Give Kerry a band aid and return him to the Senate.

[prairiebreeze]

That Kerry told Jennings he had NOT thrown the medals, but then this tape surfaced.

Isn't the larger and truer issue that Kerry came home and threw his decorations? This is really just the tip of the iceberg as we all know, when considering discussions with high level VietKong while on his honeymoon, his claims about the atrocities, his involvement in VVAW and by extension the assassination of Senator plan.

Will be interesting to see if any of the other stuff surfaces

Prairie

[Common Tator]

There comes a time in losing elections when the media starts to understand the Democrat candidate will lose.

They are then faced with finding a reason for the loss.

There are only three possiblities. The first is the Republican candiate has taken positions, adopted a popular ideology, and has a record of which the voters approve. The second is that the voters have rejected the liberal positions and ideology of the Democratic candidate. The third possible reason is the Democratic nominee is a stupid idiot that is too ignorant and dumb to play a winning ideological hand even with the medias help.

The third reson is always the reason they adopt. So when it is apparent the Democrat can't win, the media always turns on him. With Mondale it was the line "Both Reagan and I will raise your taxes. Reagan won't tell you he is going to raise your taxes.. I just did." With Dukakis it was his picture in the tank.

I don't think the media has turned on Kerry yet at all. I think they just fired a shot accross his bow. They are trying to teach Kerry a lesson. That shot says stop telling stupid unnecessary lies. If you continue we will not cover for you. But they will cover for him as long as they think khe can win. When they decide he has no chance then and only then will they turn on him.

Rush is just flappying his gums. If you look at the ditto cam you can see that today he has both halves of his brain tied behind his back.

[Jhensy]

I've been pleasantly surprised by GMA recently.... It also appears they are trying to appear neutral about politics.

Might be that, with their ratings absolutely in the toilet and programming heads rolling, a smart exec FINALLY got the nerve to say:

"Uhhh, why do we go out of our way to alienate half the viewing populace (particularly the white, middle-to-upper class viewers that advertisers covet) because of our Democrat producers, writers and reporters? Call me a nut, but shouldn't we be trying to attract such an audience?"

Sadly, he was taken outside and shot.

[Skywarner]

"I want to know the veterans' names who owned the medals he ADMITS to throwing over the fence."

Exactly!!

The media should start hounding Kerry for the names of the mysterious protestors who asked him to toss their medals, ribbons, whatever over the barricade. Of course, he will not be able to produce the names. Why? Because, I doubt they exist.

Kerry said he tossed his medals, then he said he tossed someone else's, then he says that he only tossed ribbons but would have tossed his medals if only he had them at the time, but if he did have them, he wouldn't have tossed them since he didn't agree with that, but medals equals ribbons, but not if there's a letter "R" in the month, yada, yada, yada. Ad naseum.

Truth be told, I think we'll find out in the end that Kerry did indeed toss his own medals over the barricade. But, when he got pinged on it by the unions over a decade later, he then requested replacement medals.

Wow, my 2 year old toddler told better stories than what Kerry's trying to spin on this topic!!

[gswilder]

A good way to see how this is playing, is to go over to DU. They are pretty disgusted with Kerry. They said (rightly so) that this just reinforces his flip flopping and lying image. Their suggestion is for him to just say what he did and come clean. I agree with them on this one. Kerry is making it worse by parsing words. I am just amazed by how poor a candidate Kerry is. I didn't like Gore, thought he came across as aloof and stiff, but he was better than Kerry. For some reason, Kerry just doesn't seem to learn from previous mis-steps. I think with the Rasmussen poll today, and the others from last week, we are starting to see a statistically significant shift in the polls.

[texasbluebell]

He's gonna need a big band-aid.

[TankerKC]

From the article:

"He (Kerry)reportedly invited a union official home to personally inspect his Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, awarded for his combat duty as a Navy lieutenant."

That says a lot about Kerry.

[MinuteGal]

You misunderstand. I agree with you that Lehman knows little about this....as a matter of fact, he probably knows nothing about it. I'm saying that since his name is on the document, he has the means and the power to follow the administrative trail at this point in time to find out what actually his name was signed to and why.

Leni

[bootyist-monk]

Kerry is showing his disrespect in this image. He is wearing his ribbons (or medals, as he calls them) on BDU's, which is never to be done.

[YaYa123]

Do you read ABC's The Note?

especially juicy today

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html

[clyde260]

Quick question:

Last night a friend suggested that the Bronze and Silver Star were more "army" in nature. Not that Navy guys didn't get them, just that he was wondering why Kerry got "army" medals? Is this accurate?

[texasbluebell]

Ha. Excellent catch.

[Terry Mross]

They're all the same name but may look different.

I see 11 ribbons on his chest. We've got PH, Bronze Star, Silver Star, and National Defense. What are the other 7?
I doubt his unit got that many Presidential Unit Citations.

[cyncooper]

Isn't the larger and truer issue that Kerry came home and threw his decorations?

Yes. Lost in all the parsing is the question of his anti-war activities and all that implies.

Lost for now, that is. Inevitably as the argument proceeds I think that aspect will come to the fore.

[kabar]

Thanks for the clarification. I would hope that GWB and his administration could use their control over the Executive Branch to get to the bottom of it. SECNAV was appointed by him and works for him and Rumsfeld.