Posted on 06/13/2008 10:02:28 AM PDT by nikos1121
John McCain and Barack Obama are about to face a moral choice. It will probably be made in bits and pieces over the next five months, but we can imagine it as a single dramatic incident: the adviser approaches and says, "Yes or no. Do you want to swift-boat?" If you were the presidential candidate, what answer would you give?
Swift-boat is shorthand for the brilliant, despicable Republican campaign strategy in 2004 that turned John Kerry's honorable service in Vietnam into a negative factor in his campaign. The phrase has become more broadly the term for a particular category of campaign tactics and has even become a verb. To "swift-boat" somebody is to use these tactics against him or her. If you remember the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign and don't see anything wrong with it--or if you believe it was the work of "independent" operatives unconnected to George W. Bush's campaign--I'm not going to waste precious space on the back page of a national newsmagazine arguing with you.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Kinsley the idiot slayed by Scott!
Nary a word.
Thanks for the ping.....good letter!
Swift-boating is TRUTH TELLING!
Kinsley only understands that a conservative response (not attack) prevailed. He mislabels it as an attack and doesn't understand what type of 'attack' it was. Nor do many other people (some on this thread) who confuse the swiftboat response with a garden variety political attack or even an October Surprise - some even commented on this thread.
The Swiftboat 'response' was made possible by Kerry bragging and lying about his record and then citizen eyewitnesses refuting it. It is a special situation.
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