Posted on 09/22/2006 10:32:56 AM PDT by Enchante
When he sets his jeweler’s eye upon the so-called Swift-boating of the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, for instance, future candidates for office get point-by-point instruction on how to turn a campaign liability into an asset: in this case how someone with no combat experience can successfully run on national security issues against someone who was actually shot on the battlefield.
Mr. Rich asserts that the Bush camp, “so brilliant at creating fictional stories for their own man,” managed to “create a fictional biography for Kerry” that offset the stories of his heroism as captain of a Swift boat in Vietnam, leaving the war hero “stripped of his medals — so that he would be on the same footing as a president whose Vietnam service consisted of sporadic participation in the Texas ‘Champagne unit’ stateside.”
The gambit of course worked. The president won re-election in 2004, thanks in no small measure to the seeding of doubts about one of Mr. Kerry’s major assets in that wartime campaign: his own combat record.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I still don't understand how somebody could get three Purple Hearts and not be missing a limb or, at the very least, showing a scar someplace. Did Bob Dole get more than one Purple Heart for his devastating wounds? Does any other veteran have as many Purple Hearts as Kerry with comparable lack of permanent injuries?
I have too. And I wish I could give credit to the FReeper who so aptly said; "It wasn't the Swift Boaters who sunk Kerry, it was Kerry who sunk Kerry!"
Personally, I'm getting a kicke out of the fact that it is only the urnalists who are buying this bizarro world spin on the SBT strategy...
Look up disinformation = The Clinton's.
Bump that!
Bubba downplayed his clear draft dodging and his "I loathe the military" letter.
GHW Bush was shot down and bailed his airplane.
THEN in 2004, the draft dodger Bill Clinton stood shoulder to shoulder with the traitor John Kerry and decried the military service of George W. Bush.
I love FR for this "institutional memory." It's the same thing that Rush does so brilliantly -- lending perspective, overview and context for every sling and arrow cast at conservatives, but with thousands of individual minds working the "problem."
Craig Crawford shouldn't even bother trying to appear objective -- that's like Chris Matthews pretending to be a "journalist". Thanks for "the memories" and for the "ping"!
Dittoes!
Can we add Scheer,West Coast, Ol'Molly Ivins, Texas,and my local favorites, The Entire writing staff of the Saint Pete Slimes here in Flori-DUH?
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