August 5, 2004
OUCH!:
Just in case you've not seen the devastating Swift Boat Vets ad, it'll come on when you click here.
The amazing thing about all this is that the Kerry camp had ramped back Vietnam a few months ago. They tried tarring the President as a deserter but found they couldn't explain the disparity between the Senator's desire to celebrate his own service and his anti-American activities upon his return. Why then did they make it the focal point of the Convention and revive the whole issue? Oh yeah, this is the worst run campaign in the annals of modern presidential politics.
MORE:
This band of brothers has a different view of Kerry (Collin Levey, 8/05/04, Seattle Times)
Don't look now, but the Kerry campaign is about to start attacking a group of Vietnam War veterans. After making Kerry's service as a swift-boat captain a cornerstone of the Democratic National Convention last week, the campaign's new goal will be to discredit some of Kerry's fellow soldiers as (shudder) politically motivated.Posted by Orrin Judd at August 5, 2004 11:16 AMSpecifically, the trouble comes in the form of a band of veterans who served with Kerry during his glory tour in Vietnam and who will publish a book of their own memories of the young skipper called "Unfit for Command" in coming weeks.
As a chronicle and anticipated exposé of the young soldier's actual leadership in the jungles, the book will cast a decidedly less-flattering light on the candidate as soldier. Among the charges are that Kerry exaggerated his injuries and was inept at capturing the respect of his men, who saw him as overweening and ambitious.
It is a devastating ad. But of course we now see the media circling the wagons around Kerry, attacking the Swift Veterans, and attacking Bush although he doesn't appear to have any direct connection to this group. And of course McCain helps matters by attacking the group and denouncing the ad as smear politics.
Posted by: AWW at August 5, 2004 12:19 PMThat ad is devastating for sure but for which side? My fear is that Mr. Bush will be tied to it somehow, someway, by the media. Won't matter a whit if he knows nothing about it he'll be tied to it, just watch. Another Bush lie, ad nauseum.
Posted by: Tom Wall at August 5, 2004 12:47 PMMr. Wall:
The next candidate to lose his bid for the presidency because he was too critical of his opponent will be the first since Blaine.
Posted by: oj at August 5, 2004 1:07 PMInstapundit notes that Kerry is threatenting to sue any stations that carry the ad and that the people in the ad aren't really the people they say they are. This keeps attention focused on the ad. If the people in the ad are proven to be real Kerry has hurt himself, if the people in the ad are proven to be false Bush will be made to look bad.
Posted by: AWW at August 5, 2004 4:29 PMJohn O'Neill has been opposing Kerry for 30+ years. It is interesting to see that the Democrats' first encounter with a 527-type ad has produced a letter threatening lawsuits. Not a smart move, especially if it encourages (some of) the press to find out who is telling the truth.
One good picture of Kerry's iconography in the (North) Vietnamese War Museum is all that is needed now to get him to shut up for good about serving in Vietnam. Then he really will have nothing to say.
Posted by: jim hamlen at August 5, 2004 6:47 PM