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On television (Swift Vets buy $500,000 ads in MN, brings response from Dems)
Star Tribune ^ | 11/1/04 | Matt Mckinney

Posted on 11/01/2004 11:01:40 AM PST by Cableguy

A wave of new television ads cropped up over the weekend after a Vietnam veterans group critical of Kerry's wartime service bought $500,000 of airtime in Minnesota alone for the final three days. The Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth have spent $19.5 million nationwide questioning Kerry's service and his decision to speak out against the war after having fought in it.

The ad buy is huge by Minnesota standards. Political campaigns typically spend no more than $250,000 for a full week's advertising.

The ads brought a quick response from the Democrats, who brought in a former POW and onetime ambassador to Vietnam, Pete Peterson, to make two appearances Sunday on behalf of the Kerry campaign. He urged people in St. Paul and Rochester to dismiss the latest Swift Boat ads.

"The Swift Boat ads have been largely discredited, if not all discredited, and now having drawn in the former POWs into this thing they are attempting to steal the prestige of the POW community," he said.

Peterson, who was imprisoned for 6½ years in Vietnam, also narrates a new television ad released by the Kerry campaign over the weekend in response to the Swift Boat ad. The piece, which was produced a few weeks ago but held in reserve, was airing Sunday on the two network stations that had aired the Swift Boat ad, WCCO, Channel 4, and KARE, Channel 11.

Peterson said the ads unfairly portray Vietnam-era POWs as unified in their opposition to Kerry.

"There are others of us out here who feel very strongly that George W. Bush has in fact led America in the wrong direction, and we want a new regime change in the United States," he said. Peterson was the first postwar ambassador to Vietnam. His posting there ended in July 2001.

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: swiftboat; swiftboatvets; swiftvets
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To: Cableguy
"The Swift Boat ads have been largely discredited, if not all discredited,...

It's funny. All of the demoCREEPs keep saying the charges have been discredited, but they have YET to present any proof. Their proof? Eleven (11!) other guys support John Kerry.

Well, LADDI-FRIGGIN'-DA!

Well, that's nice, 60 other guys who bunked with Kerry completely support the notion that Kerry is the, ehem, "creepy liar". And, 250 other honored men have told us of the suffering they endured as POWs because of John Kerry's antics.

So, they can "say" that the Swift Vets have been discredited, but it doesn't make it true.

21 posted on 11/01/2004 11:21:26 AM PST by mattdono ("Crush the democrats, drive them before you, and hear the lamentations of the scumbags" -Big Arnie)
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To: Merry
We all owe those Swift Boat Guys our deep respect and thanks.

Yes, I know--I say essentially the same thing all the time.

I was just wondering which Swift Vet ad they were running in MN.
22 posted on 11/01/2004 11:21:39 AM PST by HalleysFifth
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To: Slump Tester

I saw it last night during NBC's "Crossing Jordan". It was the ad where they panned over the entire group of vets and the narrator said "they have come forward with nothing to gain but the satisfaction of telling the truth"(I'm quoting from memory so I may be off by a few words). Very powerful and a nice time slot.


23 posted on 11/01/2004 11:22:38 AM PST by keyesguy
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To: jennyjenny
I have seen the Pete Peterson ad in Pennsylvania, but not the Swifties ad! I could not figure out why Kerry was running this ad in PA. It is a good ad, I think, as most people have no idea that Peterson is a bitter former Democrat congressman; but unless you have seen the Swiftie ads it seems odd and out of place, apropos of nothing.

It's VERY good news, IMO, that Kerry has to spend his money on an ad like this so late in the campaign in what should be a Blue state. That is money he is not spending in PA and Ohio, and money he is spending to defend himself and not to make the case against President Bush. The fact that Kerry made this ad and continues to show it indicates the impact the Swifties have had on this race.

24 posted on 11/01/2004 11:23:49 AM PST by Dems_R_Losers (Proud Reagan Alumna!)
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To: Cableguy

At least one of their commercials ran here in Pittsburgh last night... during the Pittsburgh-New England game! ... on KDKA (seeBS affiliate)... Sweet... Oooo, I'll bet that stung Western Pennsylvania Democrats, especially all thise that reside in the cesspool City of Pittsburgh, a Democrat stronghold (5 to 1, I believe).


25 posted on 11/01/2004 11:24:11 AM PST by fuquadukie (If you can't hang with the big dogs, then don't jump off the porch.)
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To: Cableguy
PETE PETERSON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO VIETNAM, JOINS STONEBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL AS SENIOR DIRECTOR

ABOUT STONEBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL Stonebridge International LLC is a Washington-based global strategy firm, helping U.S. and multinational companies shape and execute results-oriented strategies to solve problems and seize business opportunities worldwide. Stonebridge Chairman Samuel R. Berger, former U.S. National Security Advisor....

Pete Peterson

26 posted on 11/01/2004 11:25:52 AM PST by Madame Dufarge
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To: Cableguy
"The Swift Boat ads have been largely discredited, if not all discredited..."

Funny how they keep saying that but no one ever says how that is.

27 posted on 11/01/2004 11:26:09 AM PST by agrace
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To: AmericanChef

I went to a WalMart store the other day, and a Veteran of Foreign Wars Vet was there and he was talking to another old man about the election. The old man was for Kerry, and they were about to fight, for the VFW man was saying that Kerry was a traitor to his country and to all veterans of Vietnam. So I think that this is sort of the feeling around here where I am. I am finding that anti-Kerry feelings are running really high. Kerry is being rated as was Jane Fonda.


28 posted on 11/01/2004 11:27:28 AM PST by tessalu
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To: Cableguy

They should have spent at least similar amount in Hawaii... a military state and where many veteran live...


29 posted on 11/01/2004 11:27:37 AM PST by paudio (CLINTON BOMBED BELGRADE WITHOUT EVEN BOTHER GOING TO THE UN...)
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To: fuquadukie; philsfan24

Which ads are you seeing? Is it one of the older ones, or the 2 they have in circulation where they show all the Swift Vets in person?


30 posted on 11/01/2004 11:27:41 AM PST by Cableguy (Bush wins 53/47)
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To: AmericanChef

I went to a WalMart store the other day, and a Veteran of Foreign Wars Vet was there and he was talking to another old man about the election. The old man was for Kerry, and they were about to fight, for the VFW man was saying that Kerry was a traitor to his country and to all veterans of Vietnam. So I think that this is sort of the feeling around here where I am. I am finding that anti-Kerry feelings are running really high. Kerry is being rated as was Jane Fonda.


31 posted on 11/01/2004 11:28:20 AM PST by tessalu
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To: Cableguy

bump


32 posted on 11/01/2004 11:29:56 AM PST by prognostigaator
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To: Cableguy

$500,000 huge ad buy in MN? The DSCC bought $600,000 last week in SD to attack John Thune. Now that is a huge buy.


33 posted on 11/01/2004 11:30:44 AM PST by SoDak
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To: AgThorn
hmmm ... first POW that I have any record of that basically ignores the disservice that was done by Kerry while POW's were being held. How does this guy rationalize it?

You forgot about Senator John McCain.

34 posted on 11/01/2004 11:32:12 AM PST by LPM1888 (What are the facts? Again and again and again -- what are the facts? - Lazarus Long)
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To: fuquadukie
cesspool City of Pittsburgh
Really? I've been to Pittsburgh several times and think that it's a great city. My impression (and that of friends from Pittsburgh) is that the city is fairly conservative and is likely to go for Bush.

35 posted on 11/01/2004 11:36:08 AM PST by DallasMike
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To: AgThorn

O'Reilly interviewed him after he interviewed Dr. Tom McNish (Swiftboat POW). Peterson's line was that he wasn't demoralized, but managed to admit in the process that antiwar news, tapes, visitors were used as propaganda but he "didn't believe them." Can't imagine after having erred like that on national TV that the Kerry camp is throwing him back into the fray.


36 posted on 11/01/2004 11:40:14 AM PST by Mach9 (.)
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To: Puppage
The Swift Boat ads have been largely discredited

Well, at least he didn't call anyone a creepy liar.

37 posted on 11/01/2004 11:45:18 AM PST by Question Liberal Authority (How do you ask a goose to be the last goose to die for the Kerry campaign?)
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To: Cableguy
Obviously must be a different Pete Peterson than the author below ....

August 27, 2004 [link]
THE COMMUNIST-FREE ZONE of Little Saigon, U.S.A. is not particularly found of Sen. John Kerry, especially after Kerry used his muscle to block the Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2001, which had passed the House by a vote of 410-1. Pete Peterson reports.

38 posted on 11/01/2004 11:56:14 AM PST by AgThorn (Go go Bush!! But don't turn your back on America with "immigrant amnesty")
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To: Viet-Boat-Rider

Kerry and the MSM won't answer the charges, letting everyone know the Swift Boat guys are the ones telling the truth.


39 posted on 11/01/2004 12:00:10 PM PST by hyperpoly8 (Illegitimati Non Carborundum)
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To: AgThorn
hmmm ... first POW that I have any record of that basically ignores the disservice that was done by Kerry while POW's were being held. How does this guy rationalize it?

Can you say Stockholm Syndrom?

40 posted on 11/01/2004 12:01:14 PM PST by DrDavid (Vote Kerry for a stronger al Qaeda)
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