Posted on 08/11/2004 2:31:04 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Kerry's SWIFT meltdown
Posted: August 11, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Hugh Hewitt
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
At this writing, the Kerry campaign has not yet responded to the media meltdown that is occurring around John Kerry's four decades of stories built on his secret, illegal missions into Cambodia during the four months he skippered a SWIFT boat.
It is impossible to stonewall a story that broke out of the blogosphere and into the major media on Monday night and Tuesday morning, so eventually John Kerry is going to have to stand by his wildly implausible tales of cross-border excellent adventures, or he's going to have to apologize for inventing personal history.
Here are the facts. Not long after returning from Vietnam, John Kerry began telling people he had been sent into Cambodia on an illegal patrol on Christmas Eve 1968. He repeated that story on the floor of the Senate in 1986, to an AP reporter in 1992, and as recently as June 2003 was regaling a Washington Post reporter with a story of how he had ferried a CIA man secretly into Cambodia, and how he'd kept the man's hat as a reminder of that journey.
The Christmas-Eve-in-Cambodia story has already been completely shredded by the SWIFT boat vet critics of Kerry, and it is hard to imagine how Kerry is going to defend the CIA man who was never there, given independent testimony from Navy vets that the SWIFT boats never went into Cambodian waters. If Kerry was sent on a secret drop-off mission, he's going to have to come up with some proof, especially with the Christmas Eve narrative now so discredited.
The blogosphere pushed this story forward, with an early flare going up at KerryHaters on May 21, and then a gang tackle of the facts by Instapundit, RogerLSimon, JustOneMinute, Powerline, CaptainsQuarters and, of course, me.
We teed it up after the publisher of "Unfit for Command" released a sample chapter from the new book which brought the Cambodian myth to light. I spent all day Thursday, Friday and Monday on the story on my radio program, and Monday night Carl Cameron ran with a story on "Special Report" with Brit Hume, followed by an "O'Reilly Factor" segment with Steve Gardener, a SWIFT boat vet who served on Kerry's boat. Gardener denied ever having been to Cambodia. The Kerry campaign first denied that Kerry had ever claimed to have been in Cambodia, and then recanted upon being shown the 1986 Congressional record, promising to get back to Fox News with an explanation.
No explanation has shown up more than 12 hours later. In the interim, the New York Post has run a story, as has the London Telegraph, and the Washington Times' editors have produced a powerful editorial on the subject.
Why all the attention? Simply put, if John Kerry can be conclusively demonstrated to have lied about aspects of his Vietnam service, the media has to ask what else has he been lying about. The voters have to ask if he can be trusted. In short: Free fall.
The lefty bloggers and talking heads are stunned into silence, and have gotten no help from the Kerry people. It's hard to spin a story that hasn't been spun by the campaign since Kerry could elect to go in completely different directions. If he hangs tough on the Christmas Eve and CIA man stories, his allies will know to hang tough as well. But they can't do that without a clear signal, because if Kerry comes out and apologizes for a tall tale, the commentators are cut off at the knees.
A nasty dilemma. Perhaps the lefty pundits should try sticking with the truth: It looks very bad for Kerry. It looks like he's been lying and padding his Vietnam resume for decades and that the elite media was so in love with the story they didn't bother to check it out. It looks like Kerry's selective release of his military and health records was smoke, and that the big-time journalists at the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post fell for it.
Now we get to see if there's any pride left in the newsroom. Do any of these writers, reporters and producers resent getting played by Kerry? If so, payback will be stiff. Too early to tell whether Bush-hatred trumps anger at getting suckered. More to follow ...
Well let's look at the odds:
Swift Boat guys: 250, funding from folks like us, access to very few media outlets who do NOT want to portray them as a subset of the current presidency.
JFK the Second: half the country (give or take), Soros and the entire democrat party (ex Hitlery Co.), loved by the media right down to FOX news.
Yeah, I think they could lose.
They can sway some voters, maybe quite a few, maybe enough, that means they will have done a great service. But individually and as a group they are going to be chewed on every day until the election is over - if Kerry wins the gnawing will continue. If GWB wins it will merely ebb into sniping and enter political lore along with "the stolen Floridumb election".
What does not kill you only makes you stronger...if that's true these guys will all be Olympians when the election is over.
Glad to hear you aren't afraid at all, and welcome the probe for truth.
They can't, not without revealing their true identify as Dr. Goebbels propoganda ministry.
bump for later read
And these are the people who call Bush stupid.
I am, especially in comparison to many here, a military dunce. (I am in no way defending O'Reilly who has no excuse for not preparing and reading the facts.) Anyway, I think you brought up a critical point. I have asked many people in recent days what they thought of this story and because of people like O'Reilly and their own lack of knowledge, they don't think it has merit. (They weren't on his boat, they weren't near his boat, all the people with him support him, etc.)
The message has to continue to be sharpened to stop the O'Reilly's of the world from blurring the facts and protecting Kerry.
Why all the attention? Simply put, if John Kerry can be conclusively demonstrated to have lied about aspects of his Vietnam service, the media has to ask what else has he been lying about. The voters have to ask if he can be trusted. In short: Free fall.
BOOM BADA BANG!!!
IT'S A HOME RUN!!!
Show me a DemocRAT and I'll show you someone with no brain!
Of course they don't resent being played by Kerry. These people have callouses on their knees by now. They are so used to being used they actually ENJOY it now.
Amazing isn't it? And what about that hat?
BTTT
Think about the people that have been lining up for tickets to see Bush for hours.
For Kerry, they have to bus them in from out of town.
I was able to convince two of my daughters friends to not vote for Kerry because of the Swift Vets comments. I say why would 200+ Vietnam Vets lie? They say because he was anti-war. And I say: and Kerry lied about them back then too. Called them "baby killers, etc." I say: think about it. Would you want today's soldiers, your brother, to be serving under this lying traitor? Works every time.
Please put me on the Hugh Hewitt Ping List
BTTT
For Kerry, they have to bus them in from out of town.
I was able to convince two of my daughters friends to not vote for Kerry because of the Swift Vets comments. I say why would 200+ Vietnam Vets lie? They say because he was anti-war. And I say: and Kerry lied about them back then too. Called them "baby killers, etc." I say: think about it. Would you want today's soldiers, your brother, to be serving under this lying traitor? Works every time.
The polls taken now probably mean very little but we should work for Bush like they meant everything! Can't be to careful.
THANK YOU.
Thanks for the ping. Great article---typically Hewitt.
Meek, that dog plop picture is hilarious, AND worth stealing!!
No, Hugh, it isn't. Libs are all about "POWER". They'll defend Kerry, no matter how much he's played them for over 30 years. Supremely sad, but true.
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