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

[OldFriend]

Only the frothing at the mouth deaniac types bother to read the NYSlimes or the Washington comPost.

As for Hardball, anyone in the proximity of Matthews is in danger of catching rabies.

[adam_az]

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

I bet 60% of his viewers are Republicans who like to yell at their tv.

I know I'm in that camp. :)

[Keith in Iowa]

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

Want a great account of a Matthews melt-down? Read this by Michelle Malakin: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1195278/posts

[kabar]

You provide out some excellent points. The only difficulty is the sort of moral equivalence of what Moore is putting out to what the SBVFT are saying. Moore is a fraud and liar. I don't care if the Dems shut down all of their 527s. The SBVFT deserve to be heard regardless.

[dirtboy]

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.

Vietnam was basically dead as a campaign issue in 1992, with draft dodger Bill Clinton winning the White House. But the Dems first brought it back to life in 2000 with their attacks on Bush's National Guard record - and that action (and subsequent re-runs of that attack) has now blown up in their faces - having subjected Bush's military record during the war to detailed scrutiny, the media cannot excuse away not doing the same to Kerry once Kerry made his war experience a centerpiece of his campaign.

I have regular contact with a major media outlet. They were initially spewing the Kerry talking points - but now seem to be retreating from that untenable position. This is going to get much, much more interesting over the next couple of weeks.

[CyberCowboy777]

That and begging the President to protect him!

LOL!

The public is hearing at least a little and with Kerry's blow up, I suspect this will get even more coverage.

[adam_az]

"(Soros a left wing zealot and not a U.S. citizen)"


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

[bray]

Which side is still attacking the Vietnam Vets and which side is holding all VVs with respect. He still can't explain Cambodia, no matter how hard they try to put Humpty Kerry together again!

Pray for W and Our Vietnam Vets

[LS]

I think this is more than a "serious mistake." I think it is Kerry's "Willie Horton Moment," as I posted earlier today here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1195371/posts

Others seem to agree, because HistoryNewsNetwork.com has picked up this column now!!!

[LS]

It's the "Willie Horton Moment": http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1195371/posts

[CyberCowboy777]

I understand your point, but I am not calling for the censorship of any of these people or groups. I am simply pointing out the hypocrisy of Kerry's statements and demands.

The SBVFT have every right to speak, but it is telling that of all the 527s this is the only group Kerry wants to completely shut down.

[T Lady]

You're more than welcome...and your tagline speaks volumes about John Kerry...that is the primary reason he's been waving the 'Viet Nam' shirt around so much. If more and more Americans only knew the guy's congressional voting record (or even the REAL platform of the Democratic Party for that matter), they would turn away from him in droves. I am personally glad this is biting him in the backside.

-Regards, T.

[LS]

The sixth mistake is the biggest: remember what happened to "The Passion of the Christ" when the Jewish groups started to complain? It took off like a skyrocket. And, to our discredit, conservative carping about "Fahrenheit 9/11" has given that movie far more viewers than it originally ever would have had. Now Kerry has poured gasoline on a small, but potentially controllable fire. It's his "Willie Horton Moment" http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1195371/posts

[Verginius Rufus]

Soros must be a US citizen because he is contributing his money openly...otherwise he would funnel it through intermediaries so it couldn't be traced, like Clinton's contributions from foreigners in 1996.

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

[CyberCowboy777]

Thank you, I had heard wrong and I should have verfied.

Correction:

(Soros a left wing zealot that describes himself as a "stateless" citizen of the world),

[adam_az]

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

He's been a US citizen since 61.

[CyberCowboy777]

I was wrong, he is a citizen.

However he describes himself as a "stateless" citizen of the world.

[dirtboy]

Lehrer looked Oliphant in the eye, and said that the story is now on PBS (duh, obviously) due to Kerry's speech.

I am getting the distinct impression that the slightly more mainstream establishment branch of the media is starting to decide that saving Kerry from his own past isn't worth destroying what little credibility they have left. And the Kerry hacks simply aren't up to the task of pulling off this caliber of orchestrated lie campaign - and the media, for all their faults, don't suffer bad liars well.

[Types_with_Fist]

Our poor guys, in the thick of the crap, must be thoroughly humiliated by this wishy-washy "war" plan.

[oncebitten]

I made my first ever donation to the SBVFT today! I usually stay on the sidelines, but the gross distortions and self-aggrandizement of John Kerry is too much to take. His veil (given by the MSM) needs to be ripped off and the truth exposed. This man is patently not fit to command this nation in WWIV versus the forces of darkness known as radical Islam.