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Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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August 21, 2004
Swift boat vets drawing blood
Boy howdy, but the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and their Unfit for Command book have really drawn blood. Not just the Democrat Party, but all their operatives in the media have just gone rabbit ass crazy about this. I don't have the time or patience to try to figure out the polling data, but this must be hurting them, causing they're absolutely screaming blue bloody murder.
They've become completely berserk and delirious, screaming "liar, liar" every which way. They're looking desperate. No kind of conservative would be able to get away with this kind of disrespect towards decorated combat veterans, let alone official representatives of a presidential campaign.
Moreover, they don't seem to have much cause in these claims of "lying." They might have some answers to some of the charges, but they've got some people who were right there during some of these incidents. There may be some legitimately different memories of these incidents. These vets clearly actively dislike Kerry because of his post-combat activities, so you might take their claims with a grain of salt. Yet despite the multi-pronged flaying of the Democrats, there's been very little evidence to suggest knowing dishonesty from these critics.
Kerry actually has the more obvious truth problems, with some known factual falsehoods, notably the Christmas in Cambodia thing. He's hemming and hawing about details of atrocities he supposedly witnessed - and that's some particularly nasty stuff to have been fudging on.
He probably doesn't want a real thorough media anal exam of his record, but he volunteered for it with the whole "reporting for duty" thing. Beyond any disputed facts, it does start to look a little funny just to see three Purple Hearts and more in four months time, all without being injured bad enough to ever have to go to a hospital.
There have been reports of Kerry campaign reps absolutely calling for the publisher to withdraw the book. This just sounds nutsy. One, it's sure not going to happen. Two, what do they look like trying to get a book pulled off the market? Imagine what would be said if Bush's people tried such a thing. He'd get incredible ridicule - and he'd deserve it. You don't BAN books you don't like, you ANSWER them.
It's understandable that Kerry would like to turn this into a scandal on the Bush campaign, but he's fighting a losing battle there. The Bush campaign didn't do this, and arguably it is not the president's place to try to silence these groups- even if he could.
Also, if Kerry is going to presume to hold Bush responsible for the swfit boat veterans, then Kerry has to be accountable for the left wing nutjobs. Should Kerry be held responsible for Michael Moore? After all, Moore was an honored guest and the spiritual hero of the Democrat convention, and he's definitely played FAR more loose with facts than even the worst reasonable overview of the swift boat vets.
From my point of view, I'm not so concerned that there might have been some inflation in the awarding of his medals. Hey, he's a combat veteran. That's more than the president could say.
On the other hand, I'm put off by the accumulating incidents of Kerry's apparent dishonesty in these matters. He's already been caught saying numerous things about his service that are clearly factually untrue. That's far worse than any controversy about those damned medals.
Finally, I note with satisfaction that I take this whole situation as a counterargument to some of the campaign finance issues of recent years. This stuff has rocked the Kerry campaign worse than anything else, but with really only very little money.
Bush and Kerry are raising hundreds of millions of dollars, but all this hell has come to the Kerry campaign based on just a few hundred thousand dollars. A bazillion dollars and a dud message won't get you elected dogcatcher.
The power of the ideas does count for a lot. Now he has to answer the ideas, or he's dead in the water, and no amount of just throwing money at this will make it go away.
posted by Al at 8/21/2004 05:59:00 PM
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