Posted on 08/20/2004 1:51:34 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
For nearly two weeks, Senator John F. Kerry had refrained from commenting directly on the crescendo of attacks on his Vietnam War record. The work was being left to campaign aides, who were scrambling to control the escalating damage being done by a television ad and a book that alleged that Kerry had lied about his combat service and did not deserve his medals.
Then, Wednesday night, Kerry told his aides that he had to act. As he sat down inside his Louisburg Square home on Beacon Hill, Kerry scrawled two phrases on a yellow legal pad about his antagonists, a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group, Kerry wrote, was "a front for the Bush campaign" and "he wants them to do his dirty work."
Overnight, this new strategy by Kerry resulted in a hastily produced ad defending his war record and a speech in which the Massachusetts senator responded in detail to the group's charges. The question, however, is whether Kerry acted too late, letting the attacks grow on the Internet and talk-show circuit to such a degree that some swing voters think one of Kerry's core characteristics has been undermined.
"He had to do it," said former senator Bob Kerrey, who was tapped by the Kerry campaign to write an opinion column in The Washington Post defending the record of the Massachusetts senator.
"It was gathering a life of its own, and he had to respond. He couldn't do it through surrogates. He had to confront it himself with facts and passion."...............
Kerry had made Vietnam a centerpiece of his campaign, surrounding himself with crewmates at the Democratic National Convention and portraying his combat experience as preparation for being commander in chief.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
I still have friends who think I'm out of mind for thinking that wall ever existed.
I never dreamed the NY Slimes would have the rug yanked out from under them.
This is indeed a wonderful development for our country.
Let's see, if Kerry would have done that in V.N. wouldn't Rassman have fallen into the boat?
As excerpted from another post. Botox boy's got some 'splainin' to do to the American people.
RELEASE THE RECORDS, MONSIEUR KERRY!
I'm donating to the Swifties right now.
Modern presidential campaigns do not make life or death tactical about faces because a story has "legs." Nor is such a decision normally made on whim, even the whim of the candidate himself unless it is spontaneous. I believe Kerry and his staff have thoroughly thought the dangers of this counter attack through. This about face could only have come as a result of internal polling numbers.
The New York Times, the parent paper, which no doubt shares the same sources within the Kerry campaign, said this:
Senior Democrats, including some inside the presidential campaign, have urged Kerry to respond forcefully to the criticism, fearing that if left unanswered, it could hamper his quest for the White House
This is an extremely risky strategy for Kerry. He would not embark upon it unless he had to and he knows he has to because he has seen polling data. I do not credit the explanation that he is reacting emotionally to the disrespect he caught at the VFW convention. It is conceivable that he is laying a trap for either Bush or the Vets. It is probable that he has made a calculation that he will get sufficient cover from the MSM to finesse the risks.
Bush himself should not attempt to exploit this opening. But surrogates can and should. Kerry has invited debate, Bush should not take the bait but O'Neill can demand a debate and when Kerry declines, as he will, the attack can continue that now Kerry is hiding himself as well as his records. This is not to say that O'Neill is a surrogate. He has a good bio, by the way and presents himself quite well.
Could this be more dramatic? I guess we are to believe the two who wrote this article were standing directly behind Kerry, reading over his shoulder. How else could they have read his "scrawling"?
And how flattering! Kerry was able to write these brilliant attack lines as he was in the process of sitting! What excellent butt, hand coordination he has!!
Great picture. I love the Fulbright connection. Heh, heh.
""When you're under attack," Kerry said in his speech yesterday, "the best thing to do is turn your boat into the attack.""
Based on what really happened that should read, "When you think you're under attack, the best thing to do is run like a little girl."
The questions for Kerry include:
1. Were you or were you not in Cambodia on Christmas eve of 1968? If you were there, who ordered you to go?
2. Who signed your purple heart authorizations?
3. Why did you turn on your country and your fellow soldiers in your "winter soldiers" campaign?
4. Why won't you release your military and medical records?
This article says that Kerry finally decided to confront his questioners. Too long had he kept quiet. Now we will finally hear the real truth. That truth as Kerry spoke it was, "Everything is Bush's fault."
Nah. Just squeal a manly girl and hide behind your metrosexual surrogrates.
Everything is the fault of those eevil Republicans!
We're reaching a point with Kerry's inaccuracies and re-restatements of the "truth" at which comparisons can be made to similar Clinton misstatements during the 92 campaign.
The inferences independents and swing voters may draw from this are good, IMO.
Check this out: Swift boat crew member glad to see nominee (Kerry) fighting back***.... Kimo Williams, a Vietnam vet and executive director of the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago, said he's been waiting for Kerry to fight back but that exaggeration was part of the culture in Vietnam. "You'll hear this from any veteran who is upfront about it: When we were there, we were always trying to find ways to take advantage of our situation," he said. "So when I look at John Kerry and the situation he was in, it's easy for me to say, 'OK, he may have done that.' But I don't see anything wrong if Kerry not so much falsified it but exaggerated it to make sure he got his Purple Heart."
Other local veterans are far more skeptical and say they will never forgive Kerry for joining the anti-war movement when he got back to the United States.
"I'm a Democrat, but without a doubt, I'm voting for Bush," said Thomas Maher, a Vietnam vet from Mount Greenwood who has never voted Republican in a presidential race. "If everything he did in Vietnam was totally correct, God bless him. . . . But you don't speak out against your own country."
Dennis Rombola, a Streamwood bus driver who was a gunner on Army helicopters in Vietnam, said he just doesn't believe Kerry.
"I got hit by some shrapnel and never took a Purple Heart," Rombola said. "To me, I think Kerry's a phony."
I haven't seen it yet.
Number one best selling books that are hidden from view in bookstores have a tendancy to do that.
"Unlike the usual puddle the floor Republican routine, these guys are not only standing their ground, they're taking more each day.""
Probably because they are not all Repulicans.
READ ALL OF THIS
Swift boat crew member glad to see nominee (Kerry) fighting back
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | August 20, 2004 | SHAMUS TOOMEY
John Kerry was "way too much of a gentleman" when he let attacks on his Vietnam War record go unanswered, a former swift boat mate said Thursday while
praising Kerry's decision to fight back.
"I talked to him on Monday. It's eating him up," said Jim Wasser, now an electrician in Kankakee. "He said, 'This is hurting me. It's tearing me up.'
"I know the real John Kerry. And John Kerry is proud of what's he's done," Wasser said. "He waited too long. I'm glad he finally came out. I'm proud of him."
Wasser, an unpaid Kerry campaign worker who spent six weeks on the rivers and canals of Vietnam with the presidential hopeful in the late 1960s, was among the
local Vietnam veterans who have anxiously awaited Kerry's response to ads run by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The ads claim Kerry exaggerated his
combat record to win medals.
Wasser said that from what he witnessed, Kerry's wartime record is legitimate. Soldiers speaking out against Kerry were on separate swift boats and not close
enough to know what they're talking about, Wasser said.
Kimo Williams, a Vietnam vet and executive director of the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago, said he's been waiting for Kerry to fight back but
that exaggeration was part of the culture in Vietnam. "You'll hear this from any veteran who is upfront about it: When we were there, we were always trying to find
ways to take advantage of our situation," he said. "So when I look at John Kerry and the situation he was in, it's easy for me to say, 'OK, he may have done that.'
But I don't see anything wrong if Kerry not so much falsified it but exaggerated it to make sure he got his Purple Heart."
Other local veterans are far more skeptical and say they will never forgive Kerry for joining the anti-war movement when he got back to the United States.
"I'm a Democrat, but without a doubt, I'm voting for Bush," said Thomas Maher, a Vietnam vet from Mount Greenwood who has never voted Republican in a
presidential race. "If everything he did in Vietnam was totally correct, God bless him. . . . But you don't speak out against your own country."
Dennis Rombola, a Streamwood bus driver who was a gunner on Army helicopters in Vietnam, said he just doesn't believe Kerry.
"I got hit by some shrapnel and never took a Purple Heart," Rombola said. "To me, I think Kerry's a phony."
Contributing: AP
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1195315/posts
But Kerry denied that in the debates that just replayed last weekend on CSPAN. Are you accusing him of....lying?
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