Kerry falsifies NH woman's story

NEXT TIME John Kerry accuses President Bush of misleading the American people, remember Mary Ann Knowles.

Knowles is the Hudson woman whose battle with breast cancer Kerry has turned into a campaign anecdote. Here is what Kerry said about Knowles during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on July 29:

“What does it mean when Mary Ann Knowles, a woman with breast cancer I met in New Hampshire, had to keep working day after day right through her chemotherapy, no matter how sick she felt, because she was terrified of losing her family’s health insurance? America can do better. And help is on the way.”

What it means is that John Kerry is fibbing. As Union Leader correspondent Scott Brooks reported on Sunday, Mary Ann Knowles did not have to work through her chemotherapy for fear of losing her health insurance. Employed by Elderhostel, the Boston-based non-profit travel organization for people 55 and older, Mary Ann had 26 weeks of paid disability at her disposal. More was available for a long-term illness. She did not have to work through her chemotherapy. She chose to.

Knowles would have lost some income had she taken the disability leave, said her husband, who is unemployed. But she would not have lost her health insurance, as Kerry has repeatedly misstated.

Asked if the Kerry campaign bothered to get the details of Knowles’ personal story, spokeswoman Judy Reardon said Kerry’s use of the words “every day” in describing Knowles story was “a colloquialism.” She went on: “When a woman has a mastectomy and goes through therapy, I don’t need to double-check on her.”

In other words, Kerry knowingly used the words “every day” when he did not mean “every day,” and he used the phrase: “she still has to go to work every day — just to hang on to their health insurance” when she did not have to work every day and was in no danger of losing her health insurance.

With all that has come to light about Kerry’s voting record and his Vietnam service, his misrepresentation of Marry Ann Knowles’ story should surprise few. Kerry cannot even get his own personal history straight, so how can we expect him to correctly relay someone else’s?

I think I've realized why sKerry is making the slogans he is using. He's accustomed to riding on people's coattails, andn reaping someone else's hard work, while he collects all the benefit, without the messy hard work. Why else marry a rich widow?

He wishes to capitalize on Pres. Bush and his successful turning around the economy (a la Clinton) and the successful prosecution of the war, including the transformation of the military.

What better way to Make America Stronger than have someone get the rewards for someone else's vision?

Last night, I was going over that same thing with two undecided voters in the laundry room at the hotel I'm staying at. The woman said she was concerned because of Bush's record on immigration and the whole Iraq thing was a disaster. I set her straight on Iraq. And I agree with her on immigration. I think Bush blew it there. Then I asked her if she voted in 2000, and if so, did she vote mainstrem. She said she voted for Bush. But only because she didn't like Gore's lying. I told her that Gore had in almost everything he said a kernel of truth. And that kernel in most cases would have been impressive enough to win over some voters. Instead, he took that and made it into a lie. I asked her what she knew most about Kerry. She didn't know much. He is a Senator and he was in Vietnam and won a bunch of medals.

I asked her if it was right for someone to be in Vietnam for 4 months and win 5 medals. One of them for shooting an unarmed combatant in the back. One of them for getting a small splinter that was removed with tweezers and bandaged with a band-aid. A SINGLE band-aid. She was VERY unimpressed with him at that point. So, then I asked her if she knew that Kerry got up and testified before congress about the Vietnam war. She didn't. I told her what he said and then I told her that my uncle was spit upon and called a baby killer because of Kerry. Also, the leaders in Vietnam said that they were on the brink of surrender but held on because of John Kerry.

Then I told her that one of his seminal moments was the point where he was on a secret mission to Cambodia on Christmas day in 1968 and he heard on the radio that President Nixon was giving a speech in which he denied that any Americans were in Cambodia. And how he began to distrust the war at that point to the point that when he came back, he protested it. She said that made sense. I then asked her why someone behind enemy lines, supposedly on a mission would be listening to the radio, instead of paying attention to the mission? Also, if he was there, then why in several of his quotes over the years did he say he actually was in a city more than 50 miles away from enemy lines? Also, why did he say that it was Nixon's speech on Christmas Eve in 1968 that turned his life around, when Nixon didn't take office until 1969.

When I got there, she was either voting Kerry or not voting. When I left, she was voting Bush.

Paul
Third-party partisan who hates Kerry for personal reasons.

Jim Lehrer: Which beings us to our final question. Governor Bush, both you and the Vice-President have offered plans to provide prescription drugs for the elderly. What makes your plan superior?

GORE: Jim, I'd like to interrupt here and answer that question as if it were my turn to speak. Jim, let me tell about a friend of mine. [ holds up a picture of an elderly woman ] Her name is Etta Munsen. She's 94, she's a widow living on Social Security in Sparta, Tennessee. Etta was born with only one kidney. She also suffers from poilo, spinal menengitis, lung, liver, and pancreatic cancer, an enlarged heart, diabetes, and a rare form of styctic acne. Now, several recent strokes, along with an unfortunate shark attack, have left her paralyzed and missing her right leg under the knee. Just last week she woke from a coma to find that, due to a hospital mix-up, her left arm had been amputated, infected with syphillis, and then reattached.

From SNL 2000 Bush / Gore debates

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