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

[italianquaker]

The media has no scruples and honor at all.
Once thet see for the 100000x that kerry lied they will attack him ,we just have to keep the pressure up. they hate Pres Bush but love themselves and there jobs so eventually they have to tell the truth or watch more of there subscription and advertisements go down.
w2004
ciao

[Oztrich Boy]

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?

Deciding to run?

[USA_Soccer]

Please, please make a contribution now. Even if it's $5.

Direct link where you can make a donation via credit card:

https://swift1.he.net/~swiftvet/swift/ccdonation.php?op=donate&site=SwiftVets

[dawn53]

And the new ad can't be disputed. It is Kerry's own words and the POW's are just commenting on how they affected them. Nothing to dispute in that ad, it's just the facts!!!

[Blood of Tyrants]

First mistake: Making his pitiful four months in Vietnam the core of his campaign

Second mistake: Sending Edwards out to tell people to spend time talking with the men who served with Kerry in Vietnam, knowing that many would refute his claims

Third mistake: Trying to intimidate TV stations into not showing the SwiftBoat ad

Fourth mistake: Directly attacking the Swift Vets instead of providing proof as to why their claims are false

Fifth mistake: Claiming that the SwiftVets are funded by "a rich Republican" when it can easily be demonstrated that most of the liberal 527 orgs are supported by people known to hate Bush.

Sixth mistake: Attempting to censor the book by publicly demanding that bookstores pull it from their shelves,

[OESY]

"Two more months and I'll be through,
then I'll look for something to do.
Selling ketchup might bring me dough,
Worked for me on Purple Heart row."

[Argus]

Kerry was counting on the "chickenhawk" taunt to freeze the opposition into giving him a free pass on his Vietnam heroics. It's a measure of his quasi-royal arrogance that he never considered that actual Vietnam veterans might take his boasting and selective memory amiss, and publicly contradict him. The Swiftboat vets have really blindsided him, and he's lashing out wildly in all directions as a result. It's telling that his only recourse is to smear his fellow veterans (again!) as liars, and demand that they be muzzled, censored and banished from the public square. He is showing his true colors, and it's not pretty.

The only question is - are the voters paying attention?

[El Gran Salseron]

Where is all of the discredit of the writers of the book?

Where are the falsehoods?

The only thing I've heard is that John Kerry says they are discredited and that there are falsehoods.

[Petronski]

Okay, I know when I've been trumped. ;O)

I doff my Cleveland Indians cap to you now, good sir.

[T Lady]

Kerry not only opened Pandora's Box, he and the Dimocrats stepped on a land mine. That's just what he and Terry McAuliffe get for trying to front the American people off with a decades-old, yet painful issue like Viet Nam. And expecting no one to question their motives. What neither one of them counted on was the Alternative Media (Talk Radio, Internet Blogs, and Fox News) to call them on it.

As for John O'Neil and the rest of the Swift Boat Veterans, along with others who served honorably during that most turbulent time in our history (no thanks in large part to Walter Cronkite and other media 'icons' who twisted and perverted the truth), these guys deserve to be heard, and have every single right to refute the slanderous charges Senator Kerry leveled against them over the years. There are streets named after Mr. Kerry and the Democratic Party and Michael Moore/George Soros/Hollywierd crowd: One Way.

-Regards, T.

[savedbygrace]

I'll disagree with you about Colmes. I totally disagree with him on most issues, but he is about as fair as libs come, and he does very little, if any, yelling.

[T Lady]

Kerry not only opened Pandora's Box, he and the Dimocrats stepped on a land mine. That's just what he and Terry McAuliffe get for trying to front the American people off with a decades-old, yet painful issue like Viet Nam. And expecting no one to question their motives. What neither one of them counted on was the Alternative Media (Talk Radio, Internet Blogs, and Fox News) to call them on it.

As for John O'Neil and the rest of the Swift Boat Veterans, along with others who served honorably during that most turbulent time in our history (no thanks in large part to Walter Cronkite and other media 'icons' who twisted and perverted the truth), these guys deserve to be heard, and have every single right to refute the slanderous charges Senator Kerry leveled against them over the years. There are streets named after Mr. Kerry and the Democratic Party and Michael Moore/George Soros/Hollywierd crowd: One Way.

-Regards, T.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Just sent them $25.

[Petronski]

"Two more months
and I'll be through,

then I'll look for
something to do.

Selling ketchup might
bring me dough,

Worked for me on
Purple Heart row.

.

Burma Shave."

[dirtboy]

The more exposure and coverage they get, the more it will make it increasingly harder to discredit them. Mickey Kaus writes:

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

It's funny what happens when you do your job instead of just regurgitating the Dem talking points as you are so accustomed to doing. This paragraph damns the "big-time journalists" as much as anything I've seen.

[T Lady]

Sorry for the double-post.

[glennherman]

Soros' 30 Million comes to naught....$150k from a texas businessman decides the election. WHat a great country. The truth can still live in America - and you don't need a billion to be counted! I also donated to the swift boat vets - everyone who cares about our country and the evils of marxist enemies of the state should donate NOW.

[ntnychik]

John O'Neill was featured on Lehrer's news show on PBS last night. Counterpoint was provided by a smirking Tom Oliphant, who just happened to have witnessed the O'Neill/Kerry debate on the Cavett show in 1971. Oliphant closed with the observation that the swiftees' story was at the level of tabloids and cable TV, which have lower standards. Lehrer looked Oliphant in the eye, and said that the story is now on PBS (duh, obviously) due to Kerry's speech.

[bayourod]

I knew Soros lived overseas but i didn't realize he wasn't a US citizen.

[MEG33]

Great post..Thank you!