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KERRY CAMPAIGN'S FIRST SERIOUS MISTAKE
Real Clear Politics ^ | 8/20/04 | J. McIntyre

Posted on 08/20/2004 1:28:53 PM PDT by finnman69

Friday, August 20 2004
KERRY CAMPAIGN'S FIRST SERIOUS MISTAKE:
Yesterday afternoon I received a form email from John Kerry campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill. It began:

Today marks the end of the dishonest and disgusting smear campaign against John Kerry and his crewmates from Vietnam. This morning on the front page of the Washington Post, one of the central figures in the effort to distort John Kerry's military service was completely discredited.

The Kerry campaign must have thought that yesterday's front page Washington Post story attempting to discredit one of Kerry's critics, coupled with Kerry's public engagement of the issue in his speech to a Boston firefighters union was going to be enough to put the story to rest. But by forcefully attacking the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as ''a front for the Bush campaign" that is doing the President's ''dirty work," Kerry has forced the mainstream press to finally confront this issue which up until yesterday they had been, more or less, ignoring.

Admittedly, the Internet best seller Unfit for Command and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had in many ways cornered the Kerry campaign and not left them with many attractive options. On one hand they could continue to ignore the issue, and hope the press refused to cover it in any meaningful way, and get through next week where the impending GOP convention would then act to change the subject. Or they could confront the issue and try to put the story to rest, which of course opens up the possibility of drawing more attention to a story they don't want covered in the first place.

Unless the Kerry campaign thinks this issue is playing well for them, or they think they can turn the issue around and create a backlash against President Bush, I don't understand yesterday's tactics. Because of Kerry's counterattack yesterday, they have provided a further opening for Kerry's opponents on multiple fronts. First as much as the liberal media wants the anti-Kerry veterans to be a bunch of ragtag, right -wing nuts, they don't necessarily come across that way. The more exposure and coverage they get, the more it will make it increasingly harder to discredit them. Mickey Kaus writes (link here):

Respectable big-time journalist friends who met with the anti-Kerry vets recently found them a lot more credible than expected.

John O'Neill graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was first in his law school class at the University of Texas. He's very well spoken and makes a powerful case against Senator Kerry's Vietnam record. Another vet, Larry Thurlow, did more than hold his own on MSNBC's Hardball against a very combative and hostile Chris Mathews.

What is really problematic for the Kerry campaign is this will eventually segue into Kerry's antiwar conduct when he came home from Vietnam. And it is his post-Vietnam antiwar record, more than anything, that has the potential to do real damage to his candidacy.

Kerry's four-month stint in Vietnam is not only meant to provide foreign policy and national security cover for his dovish record in the US Senate, but it is also meant to provide cover for his antiwar crusade when he returned from Vietnam.

Kerry effectively used his Vietnam record to assist in getting the Democratic nomination, and he wisely played up his service at the Democratic convention a month ago. But from the Democrats' perspective, that is where they wanted and needed the story to end. That probably won't happen now that Kerry has publicly attacked the swift boat vets as a bunch of liars and a front for the Bush campaign.

Maybe the Kerry camp is counting on its friends in the press to spin their side (as the NY Times does on the front page this morning) in a way that limits the damage or even precipitates a backlash against President Bush. Nevertheless, by engaging on the issue they've provided a big opening for more coverage of Kerry's antiwar past and thus have given up, at least to some degree, control over the narrative of the central rationale for their candidate's bid for the White House. The risk-reward analysis doesn't seem to justify their decision. J. McIntyre 10:43 am Link | Email | Send to a Friend



TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: jumpedtheshark; kerry; realclearpolitics; swiftboatveterans; swiftvets
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1 posted on 08/20/2004 1:28:54 PM PDT by finnman69
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To: finnman69

I am enjoying this..Matthews frothing at the mouth was not helpful to Kerry either...


2 posted on 08/20/2004 1:33:14 PM PDT by MEG33 (John Kerry has been AWOL for two decades on issues of National Security)
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To: finnman69

Yep - Kerry himself opened up the Pandora's Box he wanted nailed shut!...They will never understand that TRUTH is its OWN DEFENSE and it STANDS FIRM. By Kerry pointing his finger and saying "aha - these guys are fronts for Bush" he's just forced the main stream media to actually take a look at the swift boat vets claims - something they weren't going to do!


3 posted on 08/20/2004 1:35:55 PM PDT by princess leah
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To: MEG33
I am enjoying this..Matthews frothing at the mouth was not helpful to Kerry either...

Matthews, Carville, Davis, Dean (YYYEEEEEARRRGHHH!!), the CryptKeeper (Alan Colmes)...

...heck, all they DO is yell.

4 posted on 08/20/2004 1:36:14 PM PDT by Christian4Bush (I approve this message: character and integrity matter. Bush/Cheney '04)
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To: MEG33

Finally some coverage What if we gave a party and nobody came.(5-04 media conference).The truth is getting out there
Thank god. kerry blames bush for the vets honest account
ciao
w2004


5 posted on 08/20/2004 1:37:34 PM PDT by italianquaker
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To: MEG33

I'm loving this.


6 posted on 08/20/2004 1:38:01 PM PDT by annyokie (Now with 20% More Infidel!)
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To: finnman69

This si sgreat, and Chris Mathews losing his mind and acting like a complete idiot helps our side a lot as well.


7 posted on 08/20/2004 1:39:06 PM PDT by vpintheak (Our Liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain!)
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To: finnman69

This is sgreat, and Chris Mathews losing his mind and acting like a complete idiot helps our side a lot as well.


8 posted on 08/20/2004 1:39:10 PM PDT by vpintheak (Our Liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain!)
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To: vpintheak

Well you know what I mean


9 posted on 08/20/2004 1:39:44 PM PDT by vpintheak (Our Liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain!)
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To: finnman69

This is the right analysis of the historic day the Kerry campaign "jumped the shark."


10 posted on 08/20/2004 1:40:09 PM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Your Friendly Freeper Patent Attorney)
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To: finnman69

Letter to the Editor

John Kerry is demanding that President Bush denounce the Swift Boat Vets for Truth, their two ads and their book.

All this has done is highlight the hypocrisy of John Kerry. Not only did he not denounce Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 911’, MoveOn.org shady ads or any of the 527’s; he actually used some of their propaganda to attack Bush. Example: criticizing Bush for waiting 7 minutes to leave those school children after the first plane hit while preparations to leave were made, while Kerry has admitted that he did nothing from the time the second plane hit the WTC until he was evacuated when the Pentagon was hit. By Kerry's own words, he and some of his fellow senators sat there for forty minutes, realizing "nobody could think".

Kerry’s lackeys like to point out that SwiftVets.com has received $200,000 from a Republican donor out of Texas, but they fail to mention the multi million-dollar infusions made to the attack ads against Bush. Kerry has been the beneficiary of $20 million in dirty ads from Soros, etc., (Soros a left wing zealot and not a U.S. citizen), but now Kerry is attacking the WH because of a $450,000 ad campaign by some U.S. Veterans. Kerry simply can't complain about one when he has been silent about the other.

Kerry may be highlighting one other thing: That these Vets have enough truth to really hurt him, and he needs Bush to protect him.


11 posted on 08/20/2004 1:40:46 PM PDT by CyberCowboy777 (Veritas vos liberabit)
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To: finnman69

BUMP FOR SUPPORT SWIFTVETS HERE... http://www.swiftvets.com/


12 posted on 08/20/2004 1:40:50 PM PDT by freddiedavis
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To: italianquaker

The fact that Bush has nothing to do with this and could not stop the Swiftboat vets from expressing themselves seems irrelevant to the dems..It does get coverage now because of Kerry's reactions and accusations against Bush...

I am loving the coverage they are finally getting!


13 posted on 08/20/2004 1:42:04 PM PDT by MEG33 (John Kerry has been AWOL for two decades on issues of National Security)
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To: finnman69
What is really problematic for the Kerry campaign is this will eventually segue into Kerry's antiwar conduct when he came home from Vietnam. And it is his post-Vietnam antiwar record, more than anything, that has the potential to do real damage to his candidacy.

Amen to that.

14 posted on 08/20/2004 1:42:25 PM PDT by Califelephant (50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq now have the chance to live in FREEDOM)
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To: finnman69

I hardly see that as the first. What about the gomer salute at the convention? What about the bunny suit? What about the ultimate prime mistake of basing his entire campaign on Vietnam in the first place?


15 posted on 08/20/2004 1:42:26 PM PDT by Petronski ("Where one burns books, one eventually burns people." ---Heinrich Heine)
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To: MEG33

John Kerry personally created this limb he now sits on. The Swiftvets are methodically sawing it off.

Kerry is SO SMUG in his confidence that the Old Media will circle the wagons for him, he attacks the Swiftvets as Bush campaign dupes.

Something is circling John, but it looks like big birds.


16 posted on 08/20/2004 1:43:17 PM PDT by moodyskeptic (www.WinWithHumor.com)
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To: MEG33
Wolf Blitzer just did essential the same thing on CNN with an RNC person. Repeating the same question over an over an over an over an over which was will President denounce the Swift Boat Veterans ad(s). The RNC repeatedly told him President Bush has called for the end of all 527 ads.
17 posted on 08/20/2004 1:43:32 PM PDT by hflynn
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To: Petronski

He took his camera with him to Vietnam to showcase himself all these years later..It is pathetic and in light of his anti war rhetoric against his own comrades in arms..GROSS HYPOCRISY


18 posted on 08/20/2004 1:46:04 PM PDT by MEG33 (John Kerry has been AWOL for two decades on issues of National Security)
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To: finnman69
Time for another check to the Swift Boat Veterans. Please join in. Hey, we don't want just that rich Texan and me financing this, do we?

He appears to be the only one financing this according to the news write-ups, and I know that I have sent a check, so I have to reach this conclusion. No?

19 posted on 08/20/2004 1:46:13 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: finnman69
Kerry's public engagement of the issue in his speech to a Boston firefighters union

Just out of curiosity, did anyone hear of the attendance and/or reaction to Kerry's speech from the firefighters' union? (Several months ago, a group of Boston firefighters that sings was asked to perform at an appearance by Bush; Mayor Menino wouldn't let them because it was a "political" event. I believe there were some hard feelings.)

20 posted on 08/20/2004 1:46:16 PM PDT by maryz
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