“...Levin sqawked plenty (and, might I add, correctly) about the cowardice of Bill Clinton...but why the double-standard when it comes to Mitt? (After all, he applied and was granted the same ministerial deferment denied Muhammad Ali during Vietnam).”
I don’t get Levin on radio where I am. I do however get Hannity and you lumped him in as a chickenhawk. I know what he has said about Clinton and the draft. It’s the same opinion I have. That is that I don’t like what he did because of the lies. The patterns of lies such as I didn’t inhale. He actually is a draft dodger you know. He was inducted into the army and supposed to report. He was out of college at the time and in graduate school at Oxford. There was no deferrments for graduate school. He wrote a letter to the head of the draft board (A Bataan death march survivor) and agreed to join ROTC if he did not have to be drafted. His draft induction notice was rescinded and Clinton reneged on his promise to join ROTC (BTW, This letter he wrote is still floating around somewhere). Oh by the way, he also participated in anti war demonstrations at Oxford. My bet is that Levin has said the same thing.
A chickenhawk is someone who refused to serve when it was his time and is a big proponent of national security. Do you have some proof somewhere that Levin or Hannity refused to serve? If Levin disses Clinton for not serving but supports Romney even though he did not serve that would not be a chickenhawk, but not being honest in his assesments. My guess is that Levin is on Clinton for actually being a draft dodger for the above reasons. I know that is why Hannity has hammered Clinton for this in the past. It’s legitimate in my opinion.
Again, just because you did not serve does not disqualify you from having an opinion on foreign policy and national security. Does anyone here think that Kerry or Gore would have been good on foreign policy? They served...
Mark Levin is online
One of the best stations is KPAM in Portland, OR
Mark is on right now LIVE 6-8 PM EST
I never claimed that military service was an absolute requirement to run for the presidency...however, IMO, Romney's (as well as Rudy's) story about that period (when the draft and Vietnam were realities) is beyond suspicious. In 1967 Romney (a smart kid) dropped out of Stanford University and faced the draft. His father at the time was Governor of Michigan, and like Mitt is doing this very moment, was a candidate for president. Only George Romney was a liberal Republican and a Vietnam dove who claimed he was "brainwashed" into originally supporting LBJ's war when the Gulf of Tonkin occured. Mitt Romney, has to this very day claimed that his father was the most influential person in his life, and had reportedly expressed very intense anti-war comments to fellow students at liberal Stanford, saying in effect he would never go.
When he dropped out, being a Mormon, he could apply for a "ministerial deferment" that were given. And plenty were given to Mormons; in fact the exemption for Mormon missionaries created controversy at the time. Non-Mormons in Utah filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 1968. The suit was still in court two years later, at a time when "the church and the Selective Service System work hand-in-hand in deferring the missionaries," according to an article from the period published by The New York Times. Richard Leedy, the lawyer who brought the suit, said in a telephone interview that he did so because "the substantial number of deferments to missionaries made the likelihood of us non-Mormons going to Vietnam a lot more likely."
Remember, this was the same deferment denied Muhammad Ali.
After his nearly three-year mission, Romney was granted another three-and-a half years of deferment to finish BYU. So, by the time more than six years had passed, he was finally eligible for the draft again--and by that time the war was winding down.
Accordingly, there is not much difference to me between Bill Clinton and Mitt Romney--both escaped putting their precious little a$$e$ on the line for their country by just outlasting the system. I suppose for you Mittwitts its something to be proud of...but not to me.