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 ...
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.
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.
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.
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).
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Funny how they keep saying that but no one ever says how that is.
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.
They should have spent at least similar amount in Hawaii... a military state and where many veteran live...
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?
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.
bump
$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.
You forgot about Senator John McCain.
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.
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.
Well, at least he didn't call anyone a creepy liar.
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.
Kerry and the MSM won't answer the charges, letting everyone know the Swift Boat guys are the ones telling the truth.
Can you say Stockholm Syndrom?
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