Posted on 04/19/2008 10:35:03 PM PDT by smoothsailing
April 20, 2008
Redefining 'Swiftboating' and Rewriting History
By Henry P. Wickham, Jr.
If the words "swift" and "boat" must be combined and turned into a verb, then let us insist on its proper use. The word as a verb originates from the campaign undertaken in 2004 by the Swift Boat Veterans in response to the John Kerry presidential candidacy. The word means, or should mean, the exposure of a fraudulent autobiography of one seeking political office or public influence. It is the correction of a personal and professional record that has been selectively and dishonestly compiled, as the Swift Vets did so effectively to that of John Kerry.
Although swiftboating may be a neologism, there are other recent examples of this phenomenon. Justus Reid Werner, in a seminal Commentary article, exposed the fraudulent life story created by Edward Said to advance his political agenda. Dan Rather's macho claims to be an "ex-Marine", when he did not finish Marine basic training, were also revealed to be fraudulent. This is swiftboating in its truest sense.
The Left is now redefining and, therefore, misusing the term swiftboating, and this misuse has become one of the many notable aspects of the 2008 presidential campaign....
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
And the truth that Democrats like to forget is that Al Gore, Micky the Duke’s primary opponent, started the whole Willie Horton business.
In psychiatry, the term is used to describe the use of words that only have meaning to the person who uses them, independent of their common meaning. It is considered normal in children, but a symptom of thought disorder (indicative of a psychotic mental illness, such as schizophrenia) in adults. Use of neologisms may also be related to aphasia acquired after brain damage resulting from a stroke or head injury.
Thank you for this article, Mr. Wickham.
Kerry and his VVAW puke breathern, who tried to smear their own generation as damaged goods and worthless, took one in the shorts from those same POWs who did return and become sucessful. Successful enough that they were in large part responsible for "Stolen Honor" the movie that exposed Kerry.
What? I have no idea at all what you could be referring to.
John Kennedy? All JFK could do to Nixon was using the Democrat election rigging machine - which he did.
Robert Kennedy tried running against Nixon on the "I support the Viet Cong" platform until he was murdered. Ted Kennedy maybe?
What are you talking about?
btt
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Great poem. Thanks for your Service, sir!
> You can’t swiftboat an honest man.
This suggests the possibility of an antonym: “Snakeboat” v. “To rewrite history as you would want it to be remembered by way of false autobiography, rather than by way of the Truth. Syn. Lie, Prevaricate, Perjure, Bear False Witness. Ant. Snakeboat.”
Oops! Ant: Swiftboat.
bump
"Tonk", as he was fondly known, served with honor during the Vietnam War, and had signed up as a Coast Guard volunteer on the Southern Oregon Coast after the attacks on 9/11. Sadly, he passed away last year, and was buried at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland. He is still missed and always will be by FReepers. He would've LOVED this year's battle between the Dems.
I don't know if his FReeper home page still exists, but it was amazing. If some enterprising FReeper knows how to find it, please ping me.
http://www.freerepublic.com/~6869tonkingulfyachtc/
I apologize for not knowing how to copy and paste it as a hyperlink.
What happened to that wager that Kerry was involved in?
Jack Kennedy won against Nixon, so using the BDemoTards “new” logic, JFK *must* have “swiftboated” him... ;o^)
bump
Thank you for the link and the picture of Tonk. I went to his profile page, and it brought me to tears (again).
we owe deep gratitude to John O'Neill and the more than 200 decorated Vietnam vets and POWs
Hear, hear!I bought a copy of To Set the Record Straight; I was pleased with it.
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