Sigh, just not scary anymore.
Posted on 04/11/2008 9:14:08 AM PDT by The_Republican
The best indicator of Republican John McCain's surprisingly strong presidential prospects in what should be a slam-dunk Democratic year is not his solid general-election poll numbers but rather the increasingly shrill attacks from Democrats.
The latest was a grotesque slam from Barack Obama supporter Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia. In a newspaper interview in his home state, Rockefeller let loose this stinker: "McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues."
Never mind that laser-guided missiles hadn't been invented during the Vietnam war. Bombing is a part of warfare, and McCain was serving his country as have legions of other bomber airmen. Rockefeller smeared them all. One further point: McCain was a prisoner of war in Hanoi when U.S. planes bombed the city, on the orders of McCain's admiral father.
So wrong was this that Rockefeller not only quickly apologized, but his office also later made a point of saying that McCain had accepted his apology.
For his part, Obama said nothing, but his campaign issued a statement that he "does not agree" with Rockefeller's remarks.
It wasn't the first time Obama let his campaign do the talking when one of his supporters crossed the line. Last week, liberal radio talk show host Ed Schultz, speaking at a political event before Obama, called McCain a "warmonger." It was another shameful slur on a war hero. Inconveniently for Schultz, the New York Times carried a story a few days ago that McCain's Marine Corps son had just served a tour of duty in Iraq.
The day after this ugly character assassination, Obama twice declined to repudiate Schultz's statement, according to the Los Angeles Times. His campaign finally had a spokesman say, "John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such."
Contrast that to McCain's handling of his own episode with a conservative talk show host shooting off his mouth. After learning that Bill Cunningham had, at a McCain rally, repeatedly referred to the Democratic candidate as "Barack Hussein Obama," McCain immediately stepped forward to condemn Cunningham's behavior. This took political courage because McCain already had problems with the right-wing talk show circuit, which considers him insufficiently conservative.
Obama has himself attacked McCain with a flagrant distortion, accusing him of wanting to bog America down in Iraq fighting for 100 years. The respected Annenberg Political Fact Check Web site said Obama had "twisted" McCain's words. Answering a question about how many years U.S. forces would be in Iraq, McCain said, "Make it a hundred. . . . We've been in Japan for 60 years. We've been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me, as long as American, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed."
Obama, who complains about "snippets" of anti-American talk misrepresenting the whole career of his spiritual mentor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has no problem quoting McCain out of context.
Be prepared for more of this. Wealthy Democrats plan to fund a $40 million, four-month attack barrage against McCain, reports Politico. It will be independent of whoever is the Democratic nominee, but is yet another sign of Democrats' worry about McCain.
The recent attacks could be written as standard political hardball in a hotly contested race. But, as McCain points out, Obama has promised a campaign of hope, free of the cynicism and divisive ugly politics of the past. True, good intentions tend to go by the wayside when you're battling for the most powerful job in the world. And the line between legitimate electioneering and reckless politics can be fuzzy. Still, all this does leave Obama looking a bit more like just another politician.
The U.S.A. had laser-guided smart-bombs in 1967 and used them in Vietnam?
I thought the TV-camera Maverick was state-of-the-art then?
Am I wrong?
“The latest was a grotesque slam from Barack Obama supporter Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia. In a newspaper interview in his home state, Rockefeller let loose this stinker: “McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues.””
I guess idiot Rockefeller was in the same camp as the Taliban who complained that we weren’t fighting fair since they were on horseback with swords and we were picking them off with impunity from above.
I’m in the camp that you go into war with the necessary tools to win, but then again I’m a Republican.
Fools, they should hang back and let us do it.
Yes Rockefeller, let's get into this issue about how you really feel about our military and our country. Let's discuss this more, indeed.
All part of Obama’s campaign to unify us and represent everyone and change politics. Not.
We were using Electro-optical guided bombs in “The Nam”. typically deliverd by a Phantom or a Thud
Too bad I'm not king for a month or two. All the leftist loonies would be rounded up and none would ever be allowed to run for public office!
Achtung!
I have heard this arrogant and moribundly wealthy horse’s a%$, blow hard of a jackass speak on other topics. He was just as ill informed and gullible then as he was in making this gratuitously insolent statement about McCain. It’s why, whenever these ‘statesmen’open their mouths to say anything, I change the chanel because I can’t stand to watch even someome I detest, voluntarily cover themselves with s$#@ in public,
The Paveway LGB first enetered service in 1968. That said, Rockefeller remains a feckless a$$hat.
His entire campaign and personna is nothing more than a dishonest shakedown.
So, essentially TV signals, or am I misunderstanding? That is my understanding of what they were then.
I know later the F-111 had the Pave-Tack pod but I’m not sure what year that was deployed.
Correct,
Essentially a TV camera in the nose of the bomb, controlled by the EWO or pilot. Definitely NOT a fire and forget weapon.
Thanks. Were any delivered by the A-4 Skyhawk? (That’s all McCain flew in combat, no?)
Oh the horror !
It IS his name, after all. Why is it bad to use it ?
Attacking McCain is really a stupid tactic to employ at this time. As long as hussein and hillary are campaigning all attention is on them. They’re in the news everyday and McCain just sits on the sidelines. By attacking the man...and especially by attacking his hero/warrior status they put him in the limlight and remind conservative and moderate dems why they like the guy! The more they attack the better his position in the polls!
this is the only thing that can make me support McCain.
Bill OReilly was talking about Soros yesterday, and how they have millions ready through moveon and such ready to totally trash McCain.
BOR said Soros is the most frightening thing he’s seen since he got into media. He talked about how NBC is a willing part of the Dem smear machine.
Also, the A-4 did not drop bombs from 35,000 feet. It’s a low-level attack aircraft.
When I did research on Linebacker I and II, the LGBs were delivered by larger aircraft like the F-4s. However, delivery required two aircraft: one carried the sizeable laser designator (large compared to our modern, compact units) and the other carried the LGBs.
Yeah but Liberals can’t help themselves. Haters to their core.
Correct. Further proof that Rockefeller, as usual, was talking out of his a$$.
I remember seeing video films of at least one bomb hitting a bridge in North Vietnam on the nightly news, right at our dinner table, back when I was in junior high school.
The video camera was obviously located on the bomb itself. Uncle Walter implied the bomb was guided by video, but that may not have been the case. The bomb may have been guided by a laser beam directed at the bridge, with a video camera on the bomb to collect diagnostic data.
I heard on one of the conservative talk shows (sorry, can't remember which) that the first laser guided bombs went online in 1967. Thing is, McCain was shot down in 1965. If the report I heard was accurate, McCain was already in the Hanoi Hilton when the laser bombs went onnline.
Apologizing for using BO's middle name? McCain has done many courageous things in his life...this wasn't one of them.
That’s what I thought too. That’s B-52 territory. And even then, that’s pretty high up.
Wow. How was that thing powered?
The problem with military-ignorant reporters like this one is that when they try to refute the blatant errors of some politician, they prove that they also are just as stupid. Then it gives the politician some cover because both sides are arguing without the facts. This was a big problem with the coverage of the Bush National Guard story in 2004.
Laser-guded bombs were used initailly in the Vietnam War. But not on A-4s like McCain flew, or F105s (Thuds) like a prior poster claimed. They were used on F-4s and capable F-111s. Making that error in the media gives Rockefeller cover.
For Rockefeller, rich, draft-dodging moron that he is, and his Democrat defenders and staffers, there are no “laser-guided missiles” - they’re bombs. You dont “drop missiles”, you fire them. And you don’t drop “bombs” from 35,000 feet in an A-4. You roll down the chute from a pop-up on a low-level ingress on the deck, and release the bomb or napalm or whatever from below 10,000 feet, and as low as several hundred feet. You had to do that if you wanted dumb iron bombs to come anywhere near the target.
When you pulled off the target, you were only a couple of thousand feet up, well within the range of ground-based gun fire that accounted for most kills in Vietnam.
Of course, during Vietnam Rockefeller was in VISTA, advising poor people how tough it was to be him.
.....I believe he is referring to risking upsetting Talk-Radio pundits further.....
Still, it's not a "laser-guided missile" as Rockerfeller said. I assume he will be Obama's SecDef. *snicker*
McCain was on the Forrestal, from what I have read, in 1967 when the Zuni rocket off the F-4 hit the center tank on his A-4 and exploded. Before it was over, 132 or so men were dead or missing. I think that was around July of that year and I think McCain was shot down around October, if memory serves.
Nonetheless, I figured this was another typical Obama supporter who knows nothing of facts or figures they won’t be checked out.
Yep...that about sums it up.
lol
The reason Rockefeller is emphasizing “Laser Guided Bombs” and “35,000 feet altitude” is to imply that there was NOTHING COURAGEOUS ABOUT McCAIN’S SERVICE.
In other words he was safe at 35K and the smart-bombs took care of the rest.
This is as shameful as it gets.
He not only insulted all the Heros of previous wars, but especially all the kids we have fighting in the war now. Rockefeller is basically saying their service is not courageous because of techonological edge. Poster above pointed this out as well.
No wonder Rockefeller is now running around apologizing. The man is not only a hateful Liberal but completely misinformed about the facts.
Correct. Rockefeller needs to hock something and buy a clue.
I’ll have to look it up, but I think that the first units used a battery pack (the Pave Knife unit weighed about 1,200 lbs and was flippin’ huge).
Wow - more than a 1,000lb bomb on the center rack!
They could have just dropped THAT - of course, I’m sure it wasn’t cheap at the time ......
Sigh, just not scary anymore.
Oh, a wing station? I’m thinking of the F-111 too much.
Sure had to love the Phantom II. That was one mean looking airplane. I’d hate to have had one chasing me while I was on the ground.
Hardly anyone likes McCain, certainly not the Republican base but they will vote against the RAT. McCain is a back stabber...let the RATS..his good friends...pile on him. He deserves it!
Yes, that's right. According to this source,
McCain's Oct. 26, 1967, downing, capture and subsequent 5 1/ 2 years as a prisoner of war also became the back story of McCain's success in politics and an underpinning of his two presidential campaigns.Another lesson in the old motto, "Don't believe everything you hear." I suppose he could have dropped a laser guided bomb or two.
In any case, whatever one thinks of McCain, Rockafeller's remarks were odious. I have my reservations about McCain the politician, but I have the high regard for the POW.
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