Posted on 09/14/2004 9:11:12 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
There are Reports that the Swift Boat Vets have new evidence that prove Kerry lied, primarily old Military documents.
Now given the fact that the BUSH docs have been proven to be forgeries by anyone with a few brain cells firing.. yet CBS refuses to back off of them, keeping it in the headlines... I am starting to wonder.
Is the purpose of the 60 Min. II report not so much to bash Bush, but to be used as an undermining of these new documents?
After all its not a hard argument, well the last batch were fake, why should we believe these suddenly new found docs any more than the ones that attacked Bush?
This is the only logical reason I can come up with for Rather and CBS to continue to carry water on these obvious fakes is so that they can be used as a counter argument against any new documents that may come to life attacking Kerry.
Just something to chew on.
She may break whatever it is with only days to rip it apart; blogs and FR need to be ready to set upon her.
I also think that since Dan addressed this on Monday, he no longer has the protection of Viacom, and this really is his blunder hanging on his neck, and it is going to be up to him on whether he sinks or not.
Ego is the other reason people go stupid. And Dan's got plenty of that. Either way this turned a lot more interesting at 6:30 EDT yesterday.
I've been thinking the same thing. The docs are so obviously fake that there must be some reason to stick with it. It's almost like they made it obvious they were fake that they wanted to be found out.
That reason is still coming. IMO.
Simple math:
Swiftvets = Truth
Vietnam Vets = Truth
Memos = Fake
You can try to make the truth false but in the end you are left with only the truth. You can try to make something false true but in the end you are left with something false.
DNC = Failure.
#34 you are soooo RIGHT!
I had not thought of it that way.
Thanks!
Well, i think that the issue which the fake docs where supposed to bring up may in fact have been an attempt at a diversion.
the fact that the dnc have an ad ready, the kelley book about bush and drugs (with guess apperence by barnes apparently).. it all adds up to media collusion with the kerry campaign.
i hope that drudge posts those docs as a main headline and maybe rush and sean can pick up on it.
Um...because they can't be perfectly duplicated with no effort in MS Word?
Pass it on.
Well it may take a dd180 release to settle claims and counterclaims about certain documentation.
That would be OK.....
Too right. It's sucking Kerry's air time and he desperately needs to come forward with programs that address something other than 30-year-old military records. I have been half-joking when in the past I've accused the Clintonistas of sabotaging Kerry's campaign, but it's beginning to look less like a joke with each passing day. If they stay on this issue for another two weeks September will be gone and with it any reasonable chance Kerry might have had of pulling even. My only consolation is that it couldn't be happening to a nicer guy.
You are missing my point....... the point isn't that The SVBT docs are authentic, and the Bush Guard docs aren't.. the point is is that many in the electorate won't bother to make a distinction, and will just treat it all as white noise.
Remember folks, this is politics. The truth is not what matters its the perception, most people aren't paying that close attention. Big bogus attack documents show up against Kerry... so next set of old documents suddenly "found" are branded as tit for tat and white noise.
Remember, elections are not won and lost on the base generally, its the folks in the middle that make the difference, and in any small percentage that you can move, helps you.
Do you know the average response rate for junk mailings? Less than 1/2 of one percent is considered GOOD! These marketers know this going in, they know if they mail out 1000 pieces of targeted marketing they might get 5 responses and maybe 2 will result in a sale... yet they survive and thrive on those 2 out of 1000! Politics is no different. If they muddy the water and turn it into "white noise" for the casual swing voter even if its only a few percentage of that swing voter group, its served its purpose.
If this even now turns all documents that get released into "white noise" it won't matter their authenticity or not.. it will just become white noise, tit for tat partisan attacks, and ignored. That's how it can be percieved.
I just can't find any reason for Rather and CBS to stand behind this thing, other than that. NBC blew up trucks for a story, when caught they came clean... they intentionally lied and staged things at Food Lion... etc etc etc... But when caught, they always came clean. To stand by the story when its obviously a fraud, and when you are taking a pounding for it, has to have some sort of alterior motive. I'm not convinced that that motive is purely Rather's ego. Rather's made his money, he could have retired at any time.. and one OOPS at the twighlight of his career wouldn't have undermined him in terms of his legacy... provided he just come out and admit it. By sticking by the story, to me, it seems there are alterior motives here.
The documents were part of Kerry's overall strategy of trying to trick the American people into electing the candidate with the WEAKER national security credentials in a time of war. Phase I was creating the myth of JK as war hero. Phase II was to impugn GWB's military credentials by again reviving the "Bush AWOL" stories. Both phases relied on the complicity of the liberal MSM in (a) refusing to present a complete picture of JK's military service and his post-war activities; and (b) continuing to run stories about Bush's TANG service even though the issue has already been thoroughly examined.
Without question, the "new" Barnes/Killian stories were a planned attack that would have been launched even without the success of the Swifties. However, I strongly suspect that this was all planned to take place much closer to the election, so that there would be less time for the myriad problems with the story to come out. I believe the damage the Swifties were creating for Kerry created an urgency to move up the Barnes/Killian attack by several weeks. It is certainly no coincidence that CBS went to air with this stuff only days after Susan Estrich and other dem lieutenants publicly hit the panic button and declared that Kerry needed to take off the kid gloves and "start" attacking Bush ASAP.
Clearly, the dems did not want or expect the docs to be exposed as forgeries. They probably thought (a) few people would seriously question the authenticity of documents presented by a reputable MSM news outlet; (b) any cries of "forgery" would look pathetic and would only draw attention to the supposely devastating natue of the documents; and (c) there wouldn't be enough time pre-election for any thorough investigation of the docs to be conducted or gain mainstream traction.
The idea that Dan Rather went into this intending to take a bullet for the Dems is ridiculous. Clearly, he must have known he was prostituting himself for the Kerry camp; but he did NOT expect to be CAUGHT. He just didn't count on the 'sphere being able to expose the fraud so quickly and (more important) being able to get the forgery story into the public consciousness before the initial impact of the story could even sink in. Nor did the Dems wittingly decide to kill the goose that laid the golden egg by having Dan Rather commit career suicide.
Rather is now slowly twisting in the wind, without any apparent prospect for rescue. Dem talking heads are nowhere to be found. They don't dare weigh in now for fear of further associating Kerry with the forgery scam. Rather doesn't seem to have much support within CBS. In fact, I've noticed that CBS's website is actually covering the forgery story almost as if CBS and Dan Rather were not at the center of it. Outside CBS, the old media is finally starting to come and say that the docs were forged, further isolating Rather and pressuring him to do the right thing.
The problem for the Dems now is that the longer this drags out, the harder it will be to make any "October surprise" faux revelation against Bush stick. Any shocking new revelations about Bush are simply not going to be trusted in the same way they might have been only a few months ago. The MSM is going to have to exercise caution in dealing with such stories, not out of any renewed sense of journalistic responsibility, but out of fear of ending up like Dan Rather.
The Dems are really going to have to walk something of a tightrope. First, they can't come out and support Rather/CBS for fear of looking damn guilty of peddling forgeries. On the other hand, they can't take the high road and denounce the forgeries -- which is would be an obvious good move for an INNOCENT party to make under these circumstances-- for fear that Dan Rather will out the Kerry campaign as the source of the forgeries. They basically have to keep their mouths shut and hope Rather does as well.
All in all, this episode badly undermines Kerry's ability to wage a dirty campaign down the stretch. It makes future October surprises less effective, more risky, and more difficult to pull off (because is will be harder to find willing media collaborators). In short, a disaster for the dems, and NOT what they had in mind.
But this is different. It's just about fonts. Everybody lies about fonts.
Just yesterday, I was unfaithful with "Book Antiqua".
I am so ashamed.
In a word...No!
I the CBS audience, anything the Swifties do is a lie. But the Swifties will not use documents that are not in the public record. There's six weeks to sort this out.
No.
Nope, Captain Dan is putting his head on the choppin' block with this story.
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