Posted on 08/25/2004 3:36:06 PM PDT by ambrose
Posted on Wed, Aug. 25, 2004
Many West Virginia voters turned off by anti-Kerry ads
BY SUMANA CHATTERJEE
Knight Ridder Newspapers
CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - (KRT) - The controversial Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads appear to be resonating in the beer and bingo halls of this battleground state, but not as one might expect. Many people here, including Vietnam veterans who support President Bush, consider the attack ads distasteful.
Instead of swaying voters, the ads appear to reinforce the political opinions of voters who'd already made up their minds and alienate those still undecided.
"It makes me not want to vote in any election, and certainly not for Bush," said Martha Pritchett, 57, who supported Bush in 2000.
The ads allege that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry exaggerated his role aboard a Swift boat that patrolled the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. The group says Kerry manipulated the truth to win three Purple Heart medals for wounds and the Bronze Star and Silver Star medals for valor in combat. None of the 15 veterans in the ads served on Kerry's boat, but they did serve nearby.
A Knight Ridder investigation of military records, medal citations, after-action reports and the records of at least one accuser found that the documentary evidence supports Kerry. Nonetheless, the charges have ignited a political firestorm.
In West Virginia, where military service is a proud tradition, the debate over Kerry's Vietnam record is hard to escape. It's one of a few states where the ads have run and both presidential campaigns appear frequently. Bush won the heavily Democratic but culturally conservative state in 2000.
So some folks in Charles Town, population 2,907, are paying close attention.
From his barstool at the American Legion hall, decorated Vietnam veteran Ted Walker, 63, said he dislikes the political use of military records, especially the controversy over war medals.
"I commend (Kerry) because serving on those boats was really a suicide job," said Walker, a Bush supporter. "I think it is absolutely wrong to condemn John Kerry for his Vietnam service and absolutely wrong to criticize Bush for his time in the National Guard. They both served. End of story."
Inevitably, some disagree, including Ted's older brother and fellow Navy veteran Ken Walker, 64. "I am not going to call 30 people liars and believe only two," he said, the two being Kerry and fellow Swift boat mate Jim Rassman, whose life Kerry saved.
Even when presented with facts from military records, Ken Walker remained steadfast in opposing Kerry. Like other Vietnam vets who haven't forgiven Kerry for his anti-war protests, he said he's happy to see the Democrat's image tarred. "If you want to brag about your military career, then you've got to be ready to take the hits," he said.
Others say the attack ads are a smokescreen to shield Bush's military record from scrutiny. Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard from 1968 to 1973, but many questions remain about his service. In 1972 he left Texas to work on a political campaign in Alabama, but there's no record that he reported for National Guard duty.
"Kerry's a true leader. He did something that Bush Junior didn't: serve," said Jerome Bass, 57, an Army Vietnam veteran.
White House officials note that Bush received an honorable discharge.
The political sniping over what happened more than 30 years ago during one of the most contentious times in American history has many in Charles Town reaching for the remote control to tune out politics.
"Bringing up the military records is wrong because they are trying to play on the sympathy of citizens, and we are not in any position to know what happened," said a dejected Dorcas Rambsburg, 75, as she organized her table at Tuesday night bingo at Charles Town Races and Slots. "They are just slashing at each other and it's hard to tell the truth."
Chet Hines, 53, shares that view. Hines, who stopped by the American Legion hall for happy hour with fellow Vietnam veterans, said he doesn't trust the ad.
"I get tired of hearing this stuff," he said. "John Kerry was over there and you've got to respect him for being there. A little exaggeration of the truth happens (in war), but it's not going to swing my vote."
Yeah, sure.
That's why vets are moving to Bush in the polls, because the SwiftVet ads are hurting him.
What bullsh*t Knight Ridder publishes.
Wonder how many beer halls the reporter had to go to until he found enough negative comments to write this story? Oh, probably wrote the story first then filled in the names later.
Just another left wing 527 carrying Kerrys water, the media is swarming with them. ABC, CBS, NBC, NY SLimes etc etc etc.
Damage control. The media has so spent its credibility in partisanship, any story like this has to be looked at with some suspicion.
Over the past year, I've noticed that Knight-Ridder is the source of many of the most blatant anti-Bush stories, many of them consisting of little more than selective anti-Bush quotes from "the common man" to "prove" the reporter's anti-Bush theme.
Who supported Bush by pressing a random lever. Staying home sounds like a good idea for people like her, let's keep those ads running.
Nuh uh. Not true. Notice the extreme percentage drop in the military and veterans groups that used to be for Kerry before the ads appeared.
This guy is whistling Dixie.
Translation: Our superiorly educated reporter tried to hammer this idiot into going along with the theme of this story but the local yokel ignored the facts and stayed firmly locked in his Right-Wing Hate.
SurveyUSA, ARG, Rasmussen have shown HUGE pro-Bush jumps in Michigan, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and the rest we simply don't have enough reliable polling data on.
You can check out thep olling jumps in the states I mentioned above at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/bush_vs_kerry_sbys.html ... the rest of the state polls simply are Zogpiss and Strategic Vision, neither of which I trust.
Of corse the records support kerry -- he wrote many of them.
His superiors accepted his fabricated reports as honest ones, which they would have been, had they been submitted by any other officer under their command.
You've gotta love articles like this...their transparency is even more obvious than the panels of "Indpendent a.k.a. Liberal" voters the networks seem to trot out each election cycle.
I get the impression that this reporter walked around this little Eastern Panhandle racetrack town and found some older people too nice to argue. He bullied them into giving him some quotes he could use. One guy refused to cooperate and was cited for insubordination.
Her name fits. She's a Dorcas.
Maybe. My personal favorite is the blue-hair from Iowa in 2000-who rummaged through dumpsters collecting cans to pay for her prescription drugs.
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