Cameras ready? Hands up!
Posted on 07/30/2004 5:31:32 AM PDT by OESY
BOSTON, July 29 - Even before Senator John Kerry's biographical video was shown to convention delegates at the FleetCenter on Thursday night, voters in swing states had already seen plenty of images of the Democratic presidential candidate trekking through the jungle in his combat fatigues during the Vietnam War. The images have been featured prominently in many of his commercials.
But conservative and Republican groups used Mr. Kerry's new video as an opportunity to question his motives for filming himself during the war and his decision to use the images so heavily in his campaign.
The charges flew as snippets of the short film were carried throughout the day on cable news networks - giving further exposure to images credited with helping him win in Iowa and New Hampshire last winter.
Mr. Kerry's campaign aides took the criticisms as evidence that the Republicans were becoming increasingly concerned about Mr. Kerry's decorated war service.
"It's because they're finding it very hard to run against a war hero," said Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for Mr. Kerry's campaign.
The attacks began Wednesday, when the online Drudge Report posted excerpts from a coming book published by Regnery recounting a claim that Mr. Kerry had pulled out his camera after firefights to re-enact them. (The book, "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," is by John E. O'Neill, a fellow Vietnam War veteran who has been criticizing Mr. Kerry for 30 years, and Jerome R. Corsi.)
When similar charges have come up before, Mr. Kerry has dismissed them as distortions of his filming of the battle scene after combat had ended. People who have viewed his film from the war have said they have seen no re-enactments.
Mr. Kerry took a Super 8 camera with him to Vietnam. Republicans have portrayed it as the unusual move of an ambitious young man intent on capturing his service on film for later political gain; his military supporters have described taking the camera as typical of many young soldiers.
Tim Graham, a director at the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group, said the issue of Mr. Kerry using the Vietnam film was important because "it's another flip-flop." He cited an article in The New York Times in 2002 in which Mr. Kerry said he had "no intention of using it'' for campaign purposes.
Asked why his group was making an issue of Mr. Kerry's statements now when he has been using the images in his commercials since the fall, Mr. Graham said, "Tonight's going to be Vietnam night at the convention, so there's no time like the present."
Another article on The Drudge Report claimed that a segment shown in Mr. Kerry's biographical video of bullets hitting the water as he describes the rescue of a comrade, Jim Rassman, was "not from the actual event." That accusation came after Republicans suggested that Mr. Kerry's campaign was inappropriately using archival film.
James Moll, the documentarian who made the campaign film with help from Steven Spielberg, said the only archival images he had used were of water splashing against the hull of a boat in motion.
"I can't believe that this is a big deal,'' Mr. Moll said. "It's hilarious."
Cameras ready? Hands up!
This JFKerry is one sick twisted fraud!
He actually filmed during the war? Didn't he also film footage on a later return to Nam? Strikes me that either one indicates a political calculation.
http://www.courttv.com/archive/greatesttrials/mylai/sack.html
I dunno about vietnam images, but the image of lurch saluting himself at the convention behind the monitor is scary enough.
Like someone said in an earlier thread: 20 years in the Senate and all he can run his campaign on is four months in Viet Nam.
Geeeesh.
I saw the last part of it - I guess, don't know how long it was but came in for the kiddies playing and mom with a Widow Heinz hairdo (now we know another reason he married her). Interesting the camera was rolling when the "supposed" bullets were hitting the water - can you say lights, camera, action or was he just filming and left the actual fighting to others on the boat? Had to love the spin on his spin on his anti-war activities, not. And the comment (actually there were several laughable comments, one in particular by his brother how JFK didn't shirk his duty to service) from his daughter (was it Ms. Booby?) that it amazed her that other legistative families complain their dad had no time for family but that Johnny No Show For Senate Votes always had plenty of at home time. It tape was beyond pathetic.
Interesting that they did not show pictures of him flinging his medals over the fence or listening raptly to some America hating communist sympathyzer while sitting behind Hanoi Jane or admitting that he had personally committed murder while in Vietnam.
"razed villages in fashion reminiscent of in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan,"John Kerry's Senate testimony.
You summed it up nicely.
Well if the media dismisses it as nothing, maybe I should, too?
Kerry is a fraud...anyone who was there knows that when you are getting shot at you are not taking pictures. It was all staged and is a lie...just like everything else Kerry does/is. Kerry has a lying ponzi scheme going...has got to keep feeding the beast...but in the end it will devour him. Trust me, when the bad guys shoot at you in anger and vengenace you are not taking pictures. As for the heroic rescue of the Army Officer in the water...it now is learned he fell out of the boat...and there was no combat action at the time and Kerry's boat simply picked him up. As for his so called "Band of Brothers" that are sucking up to him now....the real question is...how many of them was he in contact with over the years? I would guess none...unless they were used as a political prop. I've said it before and I'll say it again: He ain't no brother of mine. My "Band of Brothers" are not Traitors!
""It's because they're finding it very hard to run against a war hero," said Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for Mr. Kerry's campaign..."
Sorry to disappoint you, Stephanie, but John Kerry is hardly a "war hero". My God, woman, get your head out of your a** and learn just what being a "hero" is. I suggest you check with Aloha Ronnie, who actually saw real combat with the 1st Air Cav for a prolonged period in the Ia Drang, and can tell you about too many heroes who died in those few days of battle. Ever hear of Rick Rescorla? Not only was he a legend with the Cav in SEA, but he single-handedly was responsible for saving hundreds - if not thousands - of people in the WTC on September 11, 2001, sacrificing his life in the process to make sure everyone in his charge got out. That's a hero, Miss Steffie. Or, ask a few 101st Airborne troopers who stalked the A Shau valley under real combat conditions for 12 months, or some Ranger LRRPs who skulked about in the back country for weeks on end. Ask a few US Marines who held the line at Khe Sanh and Hill 881 for 30 some days, or Con Thien, or Hue City for 33 days of intense firefights, who then actually stayed on for 13 months tours. How about a few guys who flew down the Red River valley in Thuds for 100 or so combat missions? Or, a few guys from CCN who voluntarily went over the fence into Cambodia and Laos numerous times and actually came back alive, unlike too many teams from MACV SOG who didn't return. Or, a few SEALs who swam and slogged through the Rung Sat for two or three 12-month tours, killing VC after dark.
John Kerry is a self-serving, arrogant, pompous jackass of a gigolo who was a loose cannon in his very, very short tour in SEA. He either contrived or all-out faked at least two of his "wounds", none of the three being serious enough to keep him in a field hospital for a day. There is a reason the majority of the "swift" boat officers who actually knew him believe he is unfit for any further command. And, that leaves out his 20-some year "record" as a US senator, which is characterized by mediocrity. Get real, Stephanie, your candidate is a fraud.
Thanks for a wonderful laugh!!!!
That's the count, right?
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