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Does anyone remember the “character” issue that surrounded Bill Clinton when he made his first run at the presidency back in 1992? When his legendary hijinks in Arkansas started appearing on the nation’s radar screens, and people began to realize that Clinton’s lips and the truth were usually strangers? The list of pre-White House scandals was impressive — Whitewater, Troopergate, Gennifer Flowers, the Mena airport coke smuggling, the draft-dodging, antiwar demonstrations while a Rhodes scholar, etc. — and all threatened to derail his candidacy. The character issue had been raised and needed to be addressed. With his army of war...

Amidst the partisan rancor generated by the publication of "Unfit For Command", a curious thought passed through my mind upon reviewing the book's version of the basis for Kerry's Purple Hearts. First, it is important to understand that a Purple Heart is the military's way of recognizing a wound suffered in combat. It has nothing to do with heroism. While one could argue that those receiving purple hearts are heroes simply by virtue of being in harms way and suffering the consequences, there are numerous other awards that recognize selfless actions that save lives or turn the tide of battle....

Unlike the multimillion-dollar Bush-hating 527 groups funded by the likes of George Soros, the modestly budgeted Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has an ad running in only three states. But the Democrat establishment's attempts to censor the veterans has created enough publicity to hurt Sen. John Kerry's candidacy. A new survey of 1,000 voters in 19 battleground states shows that nearly six in 10 had heard of the commercial. Among those, about half said the ad so far hadn't influenced their vote. Nineteen percent said it made them more likely to vote for Kerry, and 27 percent said it made...

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And piece of souvenir grenade shrapnel. Three times John counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas. “Kerry” read the simple tag on his khaki shirt, with insignia showing he was a Lieutentant, JG. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and he had only $1.87 with which to buy ‘Agent X’ a present. He had been saving every penny he could for three months, with this result. One hundred dollars a week plus combat pay doesn't go far, even in Vietnam, even in 1968. Expenses had...

........."The majority of books are not very pro-Bush and show him in a not very favorable light," Lawton said. "It looks pretty lopsided." That trend could change, Lawton said, with the release on Aug. 15 of "Unfit for Command: Swiftboat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry" by John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi, and other conservative books. Weber said customer outcry led his store to reorganize its displays to try to balance the scales. Next to the new political books is an entire display of books about the late President Ronald Reagan, which have sold very well, he said....

I know many conservatives like Sean Hannity and (I think) Rich Lowry like Lanny Davis personally. But why did this guy get a reputation as a great spin doctor, a master of damage control? I can’t remember one situation where his combination of attacking the credibility of his opponents, semantics, goal-post moving and issue-changing has actually helped the political figure using him as a spokesman. On MSNBC's “Joe Scarborough” last night, with Pat Buchanan guest hosting, Davis was trotted out to refute the Swift Boat Vets for Truth. Almost the entire interview consists of Davis insisting that because the Swift...

NEW YORK -- Winston Churchill often repeated Stalin's observation that "in wartime truth is so precious that she should always be attended to by a bodyguard of lies." And now that the Democratic National Convention has ended with Kerry's acceptance speech concentrating on his four-month service in the Vietnam War 35 years ago, rather than his service during the past 35 years, it appears particularly appropriate. One of the pesky IRS Code 527 organizations that now buzz through the campaign atmosphere like insatiable horseflies in the aftermath of McCain-Finegold reforms has had the presumption to raise some serious questions about...

  Call sign: Boston strangler [Editor's note: Now that John Kerry's Swift Boat service has become a major political issue (albeit still ignored in the Bigfoot media), The American Thinker is pleased to feature military historian John B. Dwyer's path-breaking expose scooping the national media, published on this site on May 13th, 2004] Thomas Wright was one of John F. Kerry's fellow Swift boat officers in Vietnam.  Since Wright outranked Kerry, he was Kerry's sometime boat group Officer-in-Charge, so Wright had occasion to observe Kerry’s behavior and attitudes, and the circumstances surrounding his early departure from the war zone. The intervening...

KERRY! O'NEILL! DICK CAVETT! THE RUMBLE STARTS SUNDAY! [08/12 02:01 PM] C-SPAN has announced it will show "The Dick Cavett Show" with the Kerry and O'Neill debate this Sunday, 8/15, at 6 p.m. EST.

Thursday, August 12, 2004 Kerry camp: Candidate 'inaccurate' on Cambodia Says senator mistakenly thought it was Christmas trip when he crossed border Posted: August 12, 2004 3:45 p.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Days after charges were first made public, John Kerry's campaign is beginning to respond to allegations the senator has lied for decades about being in Cambodia for Christmas in 1968, saying he was at or near the border but not actually in the country for the holiday. As WorldNetDaily reported, the authors of the best-selling book "Unfit for Command," which refutes many of Kerry's war stories, claim that...

Thirty-five years ago when his swift boat on patrol in Vietnam was under heavy fire from the shore, John Kerry turned his craft right into the fire, beached the boat, chased down the enemy, and killed him. Now, Kerry ... is under a different kind of attack. ... (A) group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) has taken to the airwaves in three battleground states with an ad claiming that Kerry lied to get his first Purple Heart and his Bronze Star." snip Now, any political consultant worth his retainer would say that for any candidate--much less a...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Fact and fictionBy Andrew AntippasPublished August 13, 2004 I was startled to read the Aug. 10 issue of the editorial page of The Washington Times concerning the assertion attributed to Sen. John Kerry that he had spent Christmas 1968 aboard his swift boat some five miles inside Cambodia and had been shot at by our Vietnamese allies, as well as the Khmer Rouge.     I would like to offer some insights and some background about the subject of Cambodia as it related to the U.S. war effort in Vietnam in that period. I served as a Foreign Service...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - President Bush (news - web sites) is refusing to condemn an ad that criticizes rival John Kerry (news - web sites)'s Vietnam war record, even though the president's campaign partner this week, Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), urged the White House to do so. "I haven't seen the ad, but what I do condemn is these regulated, soft-money expenditures" by outside groups that have filled the airwaves with attacks on both candidates, the president said Thursday night on CNN's "Larry King Live." In a wide-ranging interview that included a discussion of the war in...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) praised John Kerry (news - web sites)'s military service as honorable on Thursday but declined to condemn ads from Vietnam veterans who questioned the Massachusetts senator's military record. "Senator Kerry is justifiably proud of his record in Vietnam and he should be," Bush said on the CNN television talk show, "Larry King Live." He referred to Kerry's Vietnam tour as "noble service." A group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has accused Kerry of misrepresenting his Vietnam War record. The group has released an ad and a book attacking...

On the floor of the U.S. Senate on March 27, 1986, Sen. John Kerry said: I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared – seared – in me. It wasn't the first time Kerry told that story. It wasn't the last time. In some versions of the story, he mentioned...

Washington, Aug. 12: For the first time, Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential challenger, has been left floundering by allegations that he invented a key episode of his decorated wartime service in Vietnam — a central plank of his election platform. Kerry has fought off charges for several years that he did not deserve all the medals he won in Vietnam, which included a Bronze Star and Silver Star for gallantry, and three Purple Hearts for combat wounds. Crewmates from the small patrol boats in which he served in the Mekong Delta have always rallied to his support, contradicting allegations...

Election 2004: John Kerry was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve in 1968. Or he wasn't. We don't know which is true yet. But voters need to find out before Nov. 2. The Democratic nominee opened himself to the current scrutiny over his whereabouts in late December 1968 with comments he made in the Senate in 1986. "I remember Christmas of 1968, sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and the president of the United States telling the American people that I was...

(KRT) - John Edwards is supposed to be a great lawyer, but at the recent Democratic convention he made a rookie mistake: He raised a question without knowing the answer. "If you have any questions about what John Kerry's made of, just spend three minutes with the men who served with him," he said. Edwards meant Kerry's "band of brothers" - the small entourage of vets who served under him in Vietnam and now strongly support him for president.Evidently, Edwards did not know at the time that almost every officer who commanded Kerry or served alongside him opposes his candidacy....

I have been wondering for some time now, everytime John E. O'Neill goes on a TV show to talk about his book. The host of show always makes it about HIM. The debate isnt about O'Neill its about Kerry, why do they NOT answer the charges, and keep attacking this man? The book isnt about HIM, HE ISNT GETTING MONEY FROM THE BOOK! ALL PROFITS HE IS GIVING TO NAVY CHARITIES! This is an honorable man! Hell, did Fat ass Michael Moore give all his profits to charity? I DONT THINK SO! DID THE LIBERAL MEDIA SLANDER MICHAEL MOORE? I...

[I've searched for a previous posting of this & can't find one. Can't vouch for anything about it, but I've received it as an email fwd. several times in the last few days & it has the ring of truth to me, at any rate.] Observations by Chris Thomas, Air Force Pilot: I would like to add my two cents about my John Kerry experience. During my career as an Air Force pilot, I spent two years flying a small twin engine prop plane around the Pacific from my base in Okinawa, Japan. On one trip we had to fly...