Free Republic

Remember the 2004 presidential campaign between George W. Bush and John Kerry? That campaign produced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in support of President Bush. The PAC exposed John Kerry’s record as a Vietnam veteran. It was very effective, too. There is a new version of this kind of Super PAC coming on the scene now and President Trump will be the beneficiary. Just in time to begin making up for some lost time, Preserve America will be overseen by Chris LaCivita, a veteran Republican strategist and the mastermind behind the Swift Boat veterans ad campaign. Politico is reporting...

Not So Swift: Libs use U.S. military as a pejorative by Daniel Clark swift boat (n): a small American military vessel used to navigate narrow, interior waterways swift-boat (vb): to expose the disloyalty of a soldier, esp. when done by a large number of that soldier’s far more loyal, honorable and trustworthy peers While explaining how the Obama administration could be surprised by criticisms of its prisoner exchange with the Taliban, NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd reported, “a few aides describe it to me as, ‘we didn’t know that they were going to swiftboat [Bowe] Bergdahl.’” The “they” in...

The platoon was, an American military official would assert years later, “raggedy.” On their tiny, remote base, in a restive sector of eastern Afghanistan at an increasingly violent time of the war, they were known to wear bandannas and cutoff T-shirts. Their crude observation post was inadequately secured, a military review later found. Their first platoon leader, and then their first platoon sergeant, were replaced relatively early in the deployment because of problems. But the unit — Second Platoon, Blackfoot Company in the First Battalion, 501st Regiment — might well have remained indistinguishable from scores of other Army platoons in...

I feel as though I have accidentally stepped into the transporter and been transported to Bizarro world. You have to rub your eyes and read again what is on the screen. I have never seen anything like this in my life. Jonathan Turley said Obama has become the President Nixon wished he could have been. Maybe, but Nixon would not insult one's intelligence so baldly as this wretched regime does on a daily basis. You go out your front door. It's raining. You're getting wet. Obama tells you it's sunny. Jen Psaki says it's sunny. Jay Carney says it's sunny....

Here's the thing about Bergdahl and the Jump-to-Conclusions mats: What if his platoon was long on psychopaths and short on leadership? (1/5)— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) June 5, 2014

An Obama administration official has floated the idea that Bowe Bergdahl was justified in deserting his platoon in Afghanistan and joining the Taliban over disagreements with the platoon's leadership. Brandon Friedman, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the Department of Housing and Urban Development posted a series of tweets Wednesday evening in which he speculated that Bergdahl deserted over bad leadership of his platoon and that is why his fellow soldiers were smearing him."Here's the thing about Bergdahl and the Jump-to-Conclusions mats: What if his platoon was long on psychopaths and short on leadership? (1/5)"" What if he grew...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Liberal MSNBC host Chris Matthews continued his attacks on the Obama administration for the trade of five dangerous Taliban prisoners for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, slamming the White House’s claim that soldiers who served with Bergdahl are “swift-boating” him and asking “where is the dishonesty in the portrayal?” of Bergdahl as a deserter. Matthews, who strongly questioned the trade even while facts continued to pour in on Monday, has been the only host on his network so far to even remotely challenge the Obama administration’s narrative on the prisoner trade and Bergdahl’s history of service. And on Wednesday, he angrily...

Acting as a stenographer on Wednesday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd parroted the Obama administration's new attack against critics of the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange: "They did not expect this backlash on Bergdahl himself. I've had a few aides describe it to me as, 'We didn't know that they were going to swift boat Bergdahl'.... MSNBC quickly seized on the "swift boat" line, with Last Word fill-in host Ari Melber declaring Tuesday night: "We're gonna look at the right-wing play book for the newly released American POW, a wounded man who isn’t even out of the hospital...

Chuck Todd told Matt Lauer on Wednesday that the White House was “caught flat-footed” on the backlash against the prisoner swap for Sergeant Bergdahl. “I’ve had a few aides describe it to me as ‘we didn’t know that they were going to Swift Boat Bergdahl’,” Todd said, “And Matt, of course, that’s a reference to that political fight back in 2004 over John Kerry’s military service which became so controversial in that campaign. So there’s some fighting words there.”

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — White House aides are accusing soldiers who served with Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl are “swift boating” him following his release over the weekend after five years in captivity. NBC News’ Chuck Todd reported Monday that the White House did not expect this sort of vitriolic backlash exchanging five high-level Taliban members held at Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl, who left his Army post in 2009 in Afghanistan and was subsequently taken captive. “They did not expect this backlash on Bergdahl himself,” Todd reported on NBC’s “Today.” I’ve had a few aides describe it to me as we didn’t...

With only the formality of the Republican National Convention standing between them and the November election, the “Comeback Team” of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan has a little less than three months in which to convince a majority of the American electorate it is better equipped to govern the country for the next four years than its Democrat counterpart. If these two Republican leaders wish to get a jump start on accomplishing that goal, there is one person with whom they quickly should set up an appointment – Texan T. Boone Pickens. Romney noted in his speech last Saturday at...

In advance of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s speech Wednesday to the NAACP, a liberal group headed by a former New York Times reporter and ex-Media Matter executive have produced a video “satire” that claims blacks don’t like Romney, who they dub so white he makes “Wonder Bread look like pumpernickel.” The YouTube from “The Message,” an online “media hub,” is described as a satirical video of Romney getting advice on what to say to the civil rights group. Or, as they said in a release, the video “lacerates Romney and his advisors as they prepare for his speech to...

Almost eight years ago, presidential candidate John Kerry accepted the Democratic nomination with the infamous line: “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty.” His military service, in a war three decades old, became the centerpiece of his campaign. Within weeks, the Republicans had turned what was seen as one of Kerry’s strongest assets against him. Swift Boats Veterans for Truth—which included over 200 Vietnam veterans, most who hadn’t even served with Kerry—succeeded in raising doubts about the heroic narrative Kerry was selling. What seemingly started as a scratch turned into a sucking chest wound for his campaign. Yesterday, the...

Our national commentariat is twisted in an impossible yoga pose trying to compare anti-Bain Capital coverage to the famous 2004 “Swift Boat” ad campaign. The two situations are not close to analogous. I have a more-than-passing acquaintance with the Swift Boat ads - I helped produce them. Our liberal news media continue to fabricate and fantasize about the Swift Boat saga, which proved to be a decisive moment in the 2004 election. In the parlance of the media, the ads run by a group of veterans opposed to John Kerry were a “smear” and were “discredited.” They were neither, and...

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) - Struggling to reverse a slide in his standing, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich said Sunday he'd been "Romney-boated" in Iowa and suggested his GOP rival would buy the presidency if he could. The sharp words against Mitt Romney, a multimillionaire many times over who is in strong contention to win Iowa, come two days before voters here weigh in on the Republican field. It was part of a stepped-up effort by Gingrich to contrast himself with Romney, and the candidate said he would adopt an even more aggressive strategy when the race moves to New Hampshire,...

You know you've made it when you're in the dictionary. But you know you've made it in a humorous way when you appear in the Urban Dictionary. UrbanDictionary.com, which tracks pop culture terms, has added one more: Scozzafavaed. Referring to Dede Scozzafava, the moderate Republican assemblywoman who pulled out of New York's District 23 race and threw her support behind the Democrat. To be "Scozzafavaed", as defined by UrbanDictionary.com, is to be "Purged of moderation, e.g., within in a Congressional district." It can also mean "Inadvertently revealed internal chaos, e.g., within in a political Party." As an adjective: "Doomed due...

I've been invited on Lars Larson's nationally-syndicated show today to talk about my recent article in the American Thinker, Media still lying about the Swift Boat Veterans and the book I co-authored with Tim Ziegler, To Set The Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry.

Five years ago, a group of Vietnam veterans came forward at the National Press Club in Washington to dispute the "war hero" stories that formed the basis of candidate John Kerry's presidential campaign, and to challenge the claims of rampant US war crimes Kerry had used to launch his political career 33 years earlier -- false accusations, they said, that helped to poison the reputations of a generation of American troops. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth included Kerry's entire former chain of command from Vietnam and dozens of eyewitnesses to his actions there. Kerry, the veterans said, was not...

Remember Wade Sanders? He was one of the "band of brothers"--Swift Boat veterans who supported John Kerry's presidential campaign and appeared onstage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Sanders was one of Kerry's nastiest surrogates. In August 2004, he likened the president to a "trapped animal." In September, he compared Karl Rove and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth chief John O'Neill to Josef Goebbels. He repeatedly referred to the president and his men as "chicken hawks," an especially nasty term because it is slang for a child molester as well as a derisive term for a nonveteran who favors a...

Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama accused the McCain-Palin campaign of using “swift boat”-style tactics in new ads and stump speeches unleashed this week because Sen. Obama once considered joining the military. “Just like they done old John Kerry, they’re doin’ me,” said Sen. Obama. “They know that I pondered military service and might have ended up as a swift-boat commander and decorated war hero if the Vietnam conflict hadn’t ended too soon.” Today, the senator from Illinois said, “Americans won’t tolerate attacks on a man who very nearly risked his life for his country, and almost certainly would have won...