KERRY CAMPAIGN'S FIRST SERIOUS MISTAKE

Real Clear Politics ^ | 8/20/04 | J. McIntyre

[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

[CyberCowboy777]

I corrected that, I jumped to quickly.

[bootless]

How Soros made his billions would make an excellent topic for a 60 Minutes expose...any Sunday now.

TICK ... TICK ... TICK... TICK... TICK... TICK... TICK... TICK...

[bootless]

Excellent post, and thank you for your valorious service.

Kerry is not just a lap dog. He is an ideologue with no moral center. He is, indeed, unfit for command.

[Rakkasan1]

didn't Fonzi do that once on Happy Days?

[Republic]

There is something beautiful and wonderful and just so DAMN RIGHT about these terrific men, these marvelous swift boat veterans, FINALLY being able to unleash the HURT john kerry leveled at ALL OF THEM when he strove to strip them of their pride of service upon his return to the states, where he labeled them criminals.

Kerrys words against the vietnam war hurt all of us, and DISCOVERING that they were exaggerations and LIES just INFURIATES ME!

(While he also helped destroy the resolve of our nation to beat back the communists, caused many to dispise and BLAME the veterans returning from that war and while he MET with communists, who revere kerry as a HERO and HANG his picture in the commie museum as a tribute to kerry's willingness to crush American troops and destroy his nation's resolve)

[ridesthemiles]

"Kerry has been the beneficiary of $20 million in ads from George Soros who isn't a citizen of the USA"....

Is it LEGAL for a non-citizen to contribute to any of these groups? What is the law on that?

I know Clinton & Gore broke the law getting money from China, Indonesia, etc. But what is the law---no matter if it gets chased down or not.

[ridesthemiles]

Seventh mistake: Letting Thereza near the kitchen knives???

[okie01]

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

Only among the 63 people* who actually saw it happen...

* Rating for contiguous 48 states only, Alaska and Hawii not included.

[goldstategop]

First serious mistake? ROFL. The whole John Kerry Campaign For President is a mistake.

[Kaslin]

The creep should have his citizenship revoked and be permantally banned to set foot here in this country

[CyberCowboy777]

Correction, I did not source my facts:

Soros obtained U.S. citizenship in 1961. However, he describes himself as a "stateless" citizen of the world.


Total amounts given to "Democrat" 527s is now estimated at 60 million as well.

[Bob J]

The media wil have to be dragged kicking and whining every inch of the way on this story.

[MrChips]

Matthews frothing at the mouth was not helpful to Kerry either

Ditto.

[hflynn]

What's behind those lying eyes?

Apparently not very much.

Don't worry about the NYT's. They have been unleashing broadsides against the Swifties for weeks prior to the release of Unfit to Command. They have been pounding W since he became the Republican nominee in 1999. It ain't working. Sooner than later somebody on Kerry's side is going to tell Kerry you have yo release your military records or lose the election. We may never know exactly when this occurs, it may already have happened, but until he actually releases them he is toast.

The other problem he has is that the release of his military records will likely, as it has done to so many others, generate a whole new set of questions that will not be answered prior to the Election Day.

To sum it all up, the French looking candidate is cornered.