Posted on 03/29/2008 2:42:44 AM PDT by billorites
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., launches a biography tour next week, which looks to tell the American people about his days as a POW in Vietnam, at least based on his new TV ad (watch HERE) introduced today in New Mexico.
In response, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean issued a statement, saying, John McCain can try to reintroduce himself to the country, but he cant change the fact that he cast aside his principles to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Bush the last seven years. While we honor McCains military service, the fact is Americans want a real leader who offers real solutions, not a blatant opportunist who doesnt understand the economy and is promising to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years.
The Republican Party has seized upon the term "blatant opportunist" to suggest that Dean is implying McCain is an opportunist for including his POW information in his TV ad.
RNC Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli said, Howard Dean owes John McCain an immediate apology and both Sens. Clinton and Obama should unequivocally denounce this disgraceful attack."
That's all noise. What's more interesting are the Dean quotes from 2004 that may come back to haunt him this year.
"The real issue is this," Dean said in March 2004, when endorsing formal rival Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., "Who would you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States of America, a group of people who never served a day overseas in their life, or a guy who served his country honorably and has three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star on the battlefields of Vietnam?"
McCain, by the way, has been awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, two Bronze Star Medals, a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Dr Dean....your party can't run an election, never mind a country
Like to see this in a McCain political ad.
I imagine we will.
Sen. McCain will wave the bloody shirt all fall. It's how it's done.
John Kerry did it, George H.W. Bush did it, John Kennedy, Ike, Teddy Roosevelt...
Of course, that honorable service in Vietnam was pretty much canceled out by Kerry's rather dishonorable and deplorable accusations against our troops when he testified before Congress in 1971. I thank God no one forgot about that.
I’m confident that over the course of the next 6-7 months Senator Kerry can be counted on to contribute more than his share of snide, stupid and reprehensible quotes.
From what is known about Kerry's service in Vietnam......I would not characterize it as "honorable".
We would have a President Kerry right now if Rathergate hadn't been exposed even as the program was still running.
Now where have I heard that before?
I know! Didn't Nancy Pelosi assure the American people that the Democrats were standing soulder-to-shoulder with President Bush???
Yeah. That's where I heard it.
As for casting aside principles-- The only principle the Democrats have is power--power for its own sake! Get it any way you can. The Democrats are not going to cast that principle aside. You can certainly give them that.
I really wish our side would not do this stupid stuff, calling for apologies and denunciations and calling remarks, however dumb and inappropriate, an "attack."
If the Republican Party was smart, it would start changing the vocabulary so as to make it sound like there are some adults in charge...but it isn't so it won't.
I'm not trying to defend Kerry, but what I don't understand is if there were so many questions about the way he earned his combat distinctions, then why was he awarded them? Wouldn't someone higher in rank than him have to sign off on that first?
I do not have a military background so I do not fully understand why he would have been awarded combat distinctions if he did not "truly" earn them.
I am aware of the Swift Boat Veterans’ criticism of Kerry’s record and I certainly do not discount them. However, someone made the decision to award Kerry the citations he received. My question is why would that someone discount the things that Swift Boat Veterans’ knew about?
IIRC the accounts in the after action report (written by Kerry) and the accounts of the others present when Kerry got his silver star differ greatly. As for the purple hearts only one of his injuries required medical treatment. For the last one there wasn’t even an after action report to go along with it. A purple heart is only awarded for injuries sustained in combat. His first attempt at aquiring his third purple heart was refused so he went through alternate channels to get it.
As for his silver star he initially claimed that it was issued with a V for valor device. The Silver star is never issued with a V for valor device. The valor is implied by it’s issuance itself.
That’s all I can remember off the top of my head. My issue was his I’m a Vietnam hero claim. My father served three tours in Vietnam. Some clown that served 4 months and got out after three minor scrapes really doesn’t impress me at all.
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