Isn’t it amazing how in the liberal mindset the term “Swiftboating” is now a synonym for an unwarranted and baseless claim, when it was the complete inverse in fact - the Swift Boat guys SERVED with Kerry and were the ones who knew what actually happened, rather than the self-created mythology.
Now, they are making “Birther” synonymous with some sort of unwarranted attack on Obama, when he never has, in fact, revealed his birth certificate and there still remains the question of “natural born citizen” in any event.
Kerry never did reveal his military records. Obama never has revealed any records. The parallels between Swift Boat and Birther/Proofer is very close in a manner that is 180 degrees opposed from what the author thinks!!
I don’t recall that there were any accusations by the swift boat vets that turned out to be untrue. I note that in this article no actual examples of false accusations by swift boat vets are given while it is admitted that Kerry engaged in at least one whopper.
Good points.
As far as “Swiftboating” is concerned a little
history is in order. In modern prez/vp political
campaigns Dan Quayle was the first candidate to
be ripped about his failure to serve in the military
in a war zone. This was true even though WWII com-
bat fighter pilot GHW Bush was at the top of the tic-
ket. That Dem strategy failed. In ‘92 the GOP tried
to return the favor by attacking Clinton. It didn’t
work for the GOP either. In fact Kerry stuck-up for
Clinton. In ‘96 the GOP tried this tactic again with
WWII combat wounded Bob Dole against the incumbent
Clinton. The tactic still didn’t work. In ‘00 the
Dems took their shots at GW’s military record and,
again, the tactic failed.
So, by ‘04 one would think that both parties would
give up on playing the war record card, but not Kerry.
He whooped it out against an incumbent GOP prez and
got called on his own record. Boo freakin’ hoo for
him.
On a side note, in ‘08 it appeared that the GOP did
not play the military service card although McCain’s
POW experience was a bit of a human interest story.
Anyone want to bet that the Dems won’t dredge the
military record issue up the next time they get the
chance?