Posted on 09/05/2004 10:30:40 AM PDT by wagglebee
Media wags will say it was the successful GOP convention that catapulted President Bush to a double-digit lead over John Kerry in Time magazine and Newsweek polls released this weekend.
But insiders know that even before Republicans gathered in New York to re-nominate Bush, the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth had turned George Bush into a frontrunner for the first time since John Kerry locked up the nomination in January.
The proof that the Swifvets had scored a direct hit against the SS Kerry came Thursday night, when the top Democrat staged an emergency rally to accuse Dick Cheney of dodging Vietnam and complain that George Bush had "attacked my fitness to serve as commander in chief."
But it wasn't Bush or Cheney who challenged Kerry's fitness to lead. It was the Swiftees, whose book "Unfit for Command" now sits atop the New York Times bestseller list for the second week in a row.
For the mainstream press, the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth didn't appear on the radar screen until late July, when the group began running TV ads in key battleground states attacking Kerry's Vietnam story.
But way back in April, when no one had heard of the Swiftees, NewsMax readers knew that the men who served with Kerry in Vietnam were preparing the bombshell revelations that would turn the 2004 presidential campaign upside down.
The story actually broke on talk radio on April 4, when NewsMax contributor and WABC radio host Steve Malzberg interviewed B.G. Burkett - author of the definitive book on false Vietnam War claims, "Stolen Valor."
Under the headline: "Navy Commanders to Cast Doubt on Kerry's War Record," NewsMax had the first print account of the bombshell to come:
Several Navy officers who supervised Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry when he commanded a swift boat in Vietnam are preparing to publicly question his war record - including the circumstances under which he was awarded three Purple Hearts - a noted Vietnam War historian revealed on Sunday.
Burkett, whose book, "Stolen Valor," is considered to be the definitive history of falsified Vietnam War claims, told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg that Kerry's former commanders would allege that the top Democrat's Purple Hearts were awarded for "self-reported injuries that were virtually nonexistent."
"He never got a day of treatment, he never spent a day in a medical facility," Burkett said. "These were all self-reported wounds, which you're going to hear from some swift boat guys in the future as to the nature of those wounds."
Burkett said he had personally spoken to the Navy commanders who were preparing to go public about Kerry's decorations.
"You're going to get quite a showing [of those speaking out]," Burkett told Malzberg. "I don't know [the number] yet. They're trying to get it to be unanimous of every swift boat guy who ever served."
As to the timetable for the upcoming revelations, Burkett said that Kerry's superior officers "were still discussing that."
Burkett's book was the first to expose Kerry's false claims made in the early 1970s about U.S. war atrocities, as well as Kerry's claim -- later found to be untrue -- that he trashed his war medals.
"You've got some major rallys being planned against John Kerry by Vietnam veterans on the mall, at the convention - this type of thing," he said. "And we're going to make America aware of John Kerry's military record."
Less than a month later on April 26 - and a full week before the Swiftees staged their debut press conference in Washington, D.C. to announce their group's plans - Malzberg interviewed the group's spokesman John O'Neill.
Again, NewsMax was first with exclusive coverage of one of O'Neill's first 2004 media appearances under the headline: "Kerry Boatmate: Vietnam Troubles Just Beginning":
Sen. John Kerry's Monday morning meltdown on "Good Morning America" may be just the beginning of his troubles, according to one of his Vietnam boatmates, who is warning that more of the men who served alongside the Massachusetts Democrat are preparing to go public with their accounts.
Texas lawyer John O'Neill, who served on Kerry's Swift Boat after he left Vietnam just four months into his tour, told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg on Sunday: "I was in exactly the same unit. There were many people who were there simultaneously with him who are all about to speak."
O'Neill gained brief fame in 1971 when he debated Kerry on "The Dick Cavett Show" and forced him to admit he never personally witnessed the war crimes he'd been accusing U.S. troops of committing.
Though he's been contacted by Kerry's opponents every time the Massachusetts Democrat has run for office in the 33 years since, O'Neill has refused to speak out.
Until now. Referring to reports this week in the Boston Globe questioning whether Kerry may have exaggerated his combat record, O'Neill told Malzberg: "This is just the first opening. They'll be many different people. But I'd prefer to let the people who were actually there speak directly."
O'Neill cited a Jan. 29, 1969, firefight that Kerry claims on his campaign Web site he and his boatmates were in.
"But according to the Boston Globe," said the Swift Boat veteran: "Kerry was not even on the boat that night. The guy that was really on the boat was a fellow officer of ours named Ted Peck. He remembers well that fight because he was terribly wounded in three places."
"There was no Kerry anywhere around," O'Neill said. "And yet it appears on his Web site as some pitched battle that Kerry was involved in."
Noting that the Democratic presidential candidate has made his Vietnam war experience the centerpiece of every campaign for office, O'Neill complained: "It's [Kerry's] self-promotion that infuriates most of the people from his unit, who actually know what he did."
"He would be a terrible commander in chief of U.S. forces in the world at a time of crisis," the Kerry boatmate warned.
I think that Kerry's "midnight meltdown" will become equivalent to Dean's Scream.
This is shaping up to be a landslide.....
Get real. Not when the mass media is in the Democrat's pocket.
I laughed when Fox News cut away from the rant, a couple of minutes after it started.
If the mass media had any effect Bush would be down 20.
I think I saw it on CSpan, but turned it off fairly early on. It was just TOO pathetic. Also, he was coming off about as credible as my ex-husband, and I don't suffer fools lightly anymore.
The mass media was in the 'Rat's pocket in 1972, 1980, 1984 and 1988 too and look how those elections turned out. It may not be a real landslide, but I think it will be at least as decisive as Bush 41 in 1988 or Clinton over Dole in 1996.
F'n made the snide remark about W's acceptance speech finally being over. Since then, I have heard Dim lackeys parroting the same thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't F'n's speech last about the same amount of time?
The MASS MEDIA DOES have effect, because if the media was ACTUALLY objective, Kerry would be down by 45 points. Kerry is a traitor, yet has led in most polls for the last month or so...there is NO WAY someone as terrible as Kerry could lead if the public KNEW about him...the SwiftVets have TURNED the corner for Bush...The SwiftVets are doing what the PRESS should be doing.
Cascading Effect!
Hurricane Frances is stemming the bleeding for Kerry. It is sucking up all the air from what would have been a bloody Sunday for Kerry.
Kerry's was about 55 minutes... he rushed through it stepping on all the applause. If he delivered it properly, they would have been the same time.
That's what I thought. He is such a whining, petty, creep. He can't even get criticism right.
Or George Romney's claim that the military brass was trying to "brainwash" him. Another self-destruction.
If the mass media wasn't pro Kerry, Bush would have been up 20 the entire time.
I was kinda thinking it might be. He's uglier then Dean too, so it'll look even worse.
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