`W stands for wrong,' Kerry says

RACINE, W.Va. - (KRT) - Seizing on a common campaign sign that features President Bush's middle initial, Sen. John Kerry on Monday declared that "W stands for wrong," shifting his focus from the rhetorical quagmires of Iraq and Vietnam to pocketbook issues.

Kerry spent Labor Day in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina blaming Bush for economic problems that he said were the worst since the Great Depression. He also retooled his campaign team on the fly.

"As the president likes to say, there's nothing complicated about it," Kerry said, speaking to a crowd of about 2,000 at a United Mine Workers Labor Day picnic. "It all comes down to one letter: W. W stands for wrong. Wrong choices, wrong judgment, wrong priorities for our country."

Aides said that Kerry is jettisoning the talk about his own Vietnam war record that dominated his message throughout the summer and will hit the economy hard, believing that job losses, falling wages and rising health care costs will convince millions of voters that they are worse off than they were four years ago.

"We're going to close the tax loopholes that reward companies for shipping jobs overseas, and we're going to reward companies that believe that American workers do the best job in the world," Kerry said. He also promised to get health care costs under control.

Bush also went through the traditional Labor Day campaign kickoff ritual, but limited his campaigning to a single evening rally in Missouri.

Kerry's day began with a front-porch question and answer session with supporters at the home of Dale and Jody Rhome on West College Street, a tree-lined block in Canonsburg, Pa.

Citing falling wages and rising health care costs, as well as Bush administration rules restricting overtime pay, Kerry said the president had "dishonored" workers and that "the average American worker was moving backwards."

Boisterous pro-Bush protesters at the end of the block screamed "flip flop" and "four more years," drowning out speakers at the event. As Kerry blasted Bush for deficit spending driven by tax cuts and a $200 billion war in Iraq, the catcalls grew louder.

"They don't like to hear the truth - it's kind of funny," Kerry said. "Every one of those people screaming over there, they all have a bigger debt to pay."

Even as he focused on the economy, questions from the audience brought Kerry back to Iraq. "It's the wrong war, in the wrong place and the wrong time," he said. Kerry said he believes he could have U.S. troops home by the end of a first term, which would be 2009.

Bush, in prepared remarks, responded: "After voting for the war, but against funding it, after saying he would have voted for the war even knowing everything we know today, my opponent woke up this morning with new campaign advisers and yet another new position.

"Suddenly he's against it again. No matter how many times Senator Kerry changes his mind, it was right for America and it's right for America now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power."

Kerry on Sunday brought veteran operative John Sasso in to travel with him and help make strategic decisions faster.

"He wanted a peer, someone his own age," a senior adviser said. "John Sasso is smart and tested."

The two men have been friends for years, and Sasso has enough history with Kerry to be able to reel him in when necessary.

Mary Beth Cahill, a former aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., will continue as campaign manager, running things from headquarters, advisers said. In recent weeks, Clinton veterans have joined the campaign, including Joe Lockhart, the former White House press secretary, and Joel Johnson, a communications adviser to Clinton. Some Democrats are also urging other former Clinton advisers to take active roles.

Upheaval is common in presidential campaigns - Kerry, for example, fired his first campaign manager just three months before the Iowa caucuses - but it is rare to do it this close to Election Day. The moves follow weeks of mounting concerns among Democrats as Kerry has foundered and lost ground to harsh attacks on his character and fitness for office.

President Clinton told Kerry in a 90-minute phone conversation Saturday that the endless back-and-forth on the Vietnam war - and Kerry's role as a veteran and a protester - was starving the campaign of oxygen.

Aides say they had long planned to buttress the campaign staff and the moves were not a sign of panic, downplaying suggestions that the Clintonistas and existing Kerry staff in headquarters would clash. "It's all hands on deck," said spokesman David Wade. "There is one team."

I purchased the video, "THE HANOI HILTON" at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. It was on sale for $5.99. I recall seeing the movie on television many years ago. I had a chance to watch the movie yesterday and now the movie, more than ever is relevant to the anti-war activities of John Kerry during the Vietnam War. Especially how the POW's were tortured many times due to the actions of John Kerry, Jane Fonda and their friends in the media.

If you have an opportunity to view it I recommend highly that you see this movie. It is a glimpse of what the POW's went through while held prisoner by the Communist North Vietnamese.

The video is available from Amazon and other online video stores.

From website: "Shot in the Dark" http://www.shotinthedark.info/

"In 1987, Lionel Chetwynd's excellent Hanoi Hilton received widely-mixed reviews (many of them politically-motivated). Worse, its distributor essentially sat on the movie, under pressure from Hollywood leftists, for its treatment of Jane Fonda. The movie depicted life at North Vietnam's Hoa Lo prison accurately - but it changed the last names of the prisoners, and of their visitors, including Jane Fonda. An actress who represents Fonda ("Paula") does everything Fonda is said to have done while in the Hilton. That was one of several stories that Hollywood didn't want told (that and, of course, the moral of the story; the men survived because of their military training and warrior ethic). "Hanoi Hilton" was buried, received a tiny theatrical release, and is hard to find on video today. (Do it if you can - it's an excellent movie)."

On the back of the box there is the following endorsement from President Ronald Reagan:

"Every American should see this powerful and moving film as a tribute to our POW's."

President Ronald Reagan

Synopsis:

HANOI HILTON (1987)

Genre(s): POW/MIA, Vietnam War

Cast: Michael Moriarty, Paul LeMat, Jeffrey Jones, Lawrence Pressman, Stephen Davies, David Soul, Rick Fitts, Aki Aleong, Gloria Carlin; DIRECTED BY: Lionel Chetwynd; WRITTEN BY: Lionel Chetwynd. PRODUCER: Cannon Films.

Review: A brutal drama about the sufferings of American POWs in Vietnamese prison camps. Non-stop torture, filth, and degradation.

Reviews on Amazon.com website:

Editorial Reviews

Description

A true story about American soldiers interned in North Vietnam during the years 1964 through 1973, and their struggle to survive within the infamous prison complex they dubbed the Hanoi Hilton.

COMMUNISM WAS EVIL, EVIL, EVIL, June 7, 2004
Reviewer: Steven R. Travers (CALIFORNIA) -

One lonely conservative voice has been trying to shout out from the "wilderness" for years. Lionel Chetwynd is a writer/producer who made "The Hanoi Hilton", which actually described the North Vietnamese as the evil torturers they were. The "Hilton" was the moniker given the infamous prison camp where American POW's were kept while Jane Fonda was flirting with our enemies. Liberal film reviewers criticized it. Do not believe them. It is good stuff.

The Hanoi Hilton, January 18, 2004
Reviewer:

I was in the Air Force during the war and have over 100 combat missions. This is the most accurate presentation of the war that is available. It is a story that needed telling and still needs to be told. It describes the situation of the American prisoners in Vietnam in an accurate and truthful manner. Everyone should see it.

The Hanoi Hilton, April 25, 2001
Reviewer:

This movie shows what terrible hardships these prisoners had to endure. I had the privilege to talk to one of the wives of these heroes and she confirmed a lot of events shown in this movie. Also stated that she was not allowed to even mention that her husband was shot down for six-months. Tell her that this movie was "too long and over emotional"!! Most Americans just did not want to face reality during this sad time in our Country's history. I was there during 1966-1968 and in Saigon 1970. --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition

Internet Movie Database
User Comments:

Date: 14 March 2000
Summary: The Libs Hate This One

While this doesn't have the action of 'Rambo' or the surrealism of 'Apocalypse Now', or 'Full Metal Jacket', it does hit dead-on as the most realistic of the Vietnam movies yet.

Most especially, it accurately contrasts the quiet heroism of the POWs with the hypocrisy of the Hollywood Left, and their comrades in the news media; so much in fact, that it is really pretty amazing this film ever got made at all.

Hollywood hates this film.

You can see a typical Hollywood review of this movie, where it is referred to as "Right-wing bullshit." Go to: http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/80saction/hanoihilton.html

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