Posted on 05/29/2004 9:29:18 PM PDT by Kaslin
URING a major speech in Seattle on Thursday, it was hardly surprising that Senator John Kerry referred to what he had learned in the Navy. Not because the speech was kicking off an 11-day focus on national security, but because Mr. Kerry, who commanded Swift boats on the Mekong River, mentions his military service every day, practically any time he speaks at any length.
Earlier in the week, he invoked his time in uniform while unveiling his new red, white and blue campaign plane, saying the 757 would be his "freedom jet," a term American servicemen used for the buzzing aircraft overhead in Vietnam. Last month, he explained his devotion to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by recalling how he used them for barter in Southeast Asia.
On a recent visit to Jacksonville, Fla., virtually the first words out of his mouth at a riverfront rally were "great Navy town." He often spots someone in a crowd and wonders, "Is that a Navy jacket?" (No? Marines? I'm a Navy man, he reminds.) Talking about health care for veterans the other day in Little Rock, Ark., Mr. Kerry declared his commitment to the cause a moral one, "not just based on my service."
And when a local television reporter in Pennsylvania inquired how he would counter the sense that people would prefer to have a beer with President Bush, Mr. Kerry suggested, "Talk to the guys I served with 35 years ago."
The incessant reminders of his four-month combat tour are hardly accidental. They echo the core of Mr. Kerry's $25 million advertising campaign describing his "lifetime of strength and service," using what Democrats see as their best hope for neutralizing any advantage Mr. Bush has as a commander in chief during wartime.
Senator Kerry and his campaign were shocked to discover last year that half the voters in New Hampshire, despite decades of watching the Boston television stations that chronicled his career, did not know Mr. Kerry was a veteran.
"It's absolutely purposeful," Tad Devine, a campaign adviser, said of the steady stream of military references. "That experience is a central part of his life. It's really important that people come to know him and his whole story."
But Mr. Kerry typically mentions his short stint as a prosecutor only while discussing criminal justice. Stories of his starting a cookie company rarely pop up outside small-business forums.
Yet in ads and two recent speeches, Mr. Kerry talked not only of his own military credentials but of those of his father, who served as a pilot in World War II. (The campaign likes to point out that Mr. Kerry was born in an Army hospital in Colorado, a state they hope to capture in the fall.)
Several times this spring, opponents have tried to turn Mr. Kerry's military history against him, raising questions about whether he deserved his three Purple Hearts, and recalling his controversial antiwar statements and activities after his return.
But most people in the campaign did not seem to mind. USA Today published an article about whether Mr. Kerry discarded his medals at an antiwar protest, but it ran with a big graphic showing his Silver Star, Bronze Star and other honors.
Nearly every time Mr. Kerry's campaign plane takes off or lands, a dozen or so veterans turn up on the tarmac to greet him, their colorful caps and pins captured by the local news cameras. Many an audience includes a questioner who begins with, "Welcome home, brother," a familiar veterans' greeting.
Even without veterans in the audience, Mr. Kerry will not be stopped. "One thing I learned in the Navy," he said in Seattle, "is that when the course you're on is headed for the shoals, you have to change course."
OMG! That's one of the funniest things I have ever heard used to describe Kerry.
There is some controversy about that little business venture.
Apparently Kerry was been accused of stealing some other guy's cookie recipe.
I don't know any more details than that though.
Very good point.
Quite graphic, isn't it?....;))
I ended up in the USMC, but when I was a Midshipman I never heard this "shoals" quote...ever. This is the first time, with service since 1972. I think he made it up because it sounded good to him. Hell, it would be common sense to change course if you were heading for the shoals...the moron should have checked his charts in the first place!! And this guy wants to be our "Gator"?? Semper Fidelis from Guam, where America's day begins!!
Indeed it is. Alarmingly descriptive in fact. :)
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!.....LOL!
If only this was a masthead editorial or an OpEd column other than by Brooks or Safire in the "paper of record", that would be a man bites dog story.
The author is a political reporter filling space with the truth. After eating crow this week about how they reported about WMDs in Iraq, maybe there's something happening with the editors at the Times that they allowed this to be printed in the "news" part of the paper.
They had a press conference where they said almost to the man that you were unqualified to be Commander-In-Chief. As I recall, the New York Times didn't think that was newsworthy.
What I love about this article is that it can be read with or without irony. I can see one of the NYT editors: "Kerry was a veteran!?! This is dynamite stuff!!! We'll run it on Memorial Day Weekend! That'll teach those Republicans not to question my patriotism!"
Does he have any proof of his 'being there'???
redrock
LOL!
He was -- and he took a camera with him!
THAT has GOT to be the quote of this election!!!
Nam Vet
Nam Vet
Yeah, but looking at him, or listening to him is so much worse.
It wasn't by any chance Otis Spunkmeyer was it? I heard he got false info regarding the secret ingredient, and that's why it flopped.
I had a Great Uncle that did 65 missions sitting in a B-17 over Germany-----Never talked about it
I have an Uncle that did three tours over in Nam ---- Never Talks about it.
After being a bar tender/ manager/ past commander of an American Legion post. You find out that those who talk the most...Did the least And that person who sits quietly over in the corner. Was one who was really in the S--T!
Kerry not only goes on & on about it. But took a camera back to reenact his event....Give Me A Break!....Scotty Beam Me Up....
Same here. I have an uncle who was a helicopter pilot in VN, NEVER heard him bring it up, or heard anyone else bring it up in his presence. My best friend in high school was the daughter of a WWII vet. He never talked about that war either, never mentioned that he was a veteran. I only knew because she told me.
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