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rsrobinson
Seaman Recruit
Joined: 21 Aug 2004
Posts: 20
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 Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:31 pm Post subject: Big Media Counterattacks |
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John McIntyre of RealClearPolitics.com has a great analysis of the desperate big media counterattack against Bush to counter the damage done by the Swiftees to Kerry: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/commentary.html#9_7_04_0845
| Quote: | BIG MEDIA COUNTERATTACKS: Old Media and the Left, enraged by President Bush's surge in the polls and what they view as an illegitimate examination of Kerry's record, has decided that today is the day they will counterattack hard in an attempt to reopen the Bush National Guard story as an issue in the campaign.
The Boston Globe unloads an above the fold, front-page story: "Bush Fell Short on Duty at Guard: Records Show Pledges Unmet." The Globe's parent corporation, The New York Times Company, gets into the action with Nicholas Kristof 's "Missing in Action." Then of course there is the headliner with CBS's Dan Rather interviewing former Democratic Texas House Speaker and Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes on 60 Minutes II later tonight.
Kristof writes wistfully:
I've steered clear until now of how Mr. Bush evaded service in Vietnam because I thought other issues were more important. But if Bush supporters attack John Kerry for his conduct after he volunteered for dangerous duty in Vietnam, it's only fair to scrutinize Mr. Bush's behavior.
I love it when post-hippie 1970 liberals indignantly throw around words like "evaded service in Vietnam." Of course for eight years while Bill Clinton was Commander in Chief this was a non-issue, but suddenly they are enraged that somebody might have "evaded service in Vietnam" by serving in the National Guard. Now liberals will say the issue is not that Bush served in the National Guard, but rather how he got into the National Guard. But Kristof's own words accuse the President very directly of "evading service in Vietnam."
The hypocrisy here is so stunning and the gall of baby boomer, anti-war lefties getting all self-righteous about "evading service" is a joke. The fact the Left has decided to go back to the trough on this issue just shows how few attractive avenues of attack they have left against the President. This is a sign of weakness, not strength.
The Kerry campaign, The New York Times, the Boston Globe and CBS are all excited that they are going to "swift-boat" George W. Bush and turn these next two weeks into the equivalent of John Kerry's August for the President. But after the heat of the 2000 Presidential campaign and then the attempt several months ago to reignite the National Guard issue, the likelihood that there is going to be something substantive in all of this noise is extremely unlikely.
Now the Kerry folks and the liberal glitterati in the press will say that there was nothing substantive in the swift-boat story yet it caused tremendous damage to John Kerry. It is this logic that has probably deluded them into thinking that this old National Guard issue can be used effectively against President Bush.
But they are missing two key points to why this re-attack on President Bush's National Guard service will not have nearly the effectiveness of the swift boat attacks on Senator Kerry. First, and this is not a small point, George Bush has not made his stint in the National Guard one of the primary reasons to vote for him as President. Bush is more than happy to run on his 6-year record as Governor of the second largest state in country and his four years as President of the United States. It is Senator Kerry who decided to make his four-month service in Vietnam the prime qualification to lead this nation in war as opposed to his twenty-year public record in the United States Senate.
Second, and it is this point that infuriates the elites in the media, there happens to be quite a lot of substance in the swift-boat attacks. The Kerry campaign and their friends in the press like to pretend that this is all just a pack of lies conjured up by the right-wing slime machine, but the facts seem to suggest a different story. The reason the swift-boat controversy continues to resonate is there is significant evidence supporting the charges.
The media did their best to cherry pick one story here and another story there in an attempt to discredit the swift-boat veterans, but when you have over 90% of the people Kerry served with corroborating the story, at some point it becomes difficult to suggest the whole thing is all a pack of lies. As Bob Dole said very devastatingly just a couple of weeks ago:
Not every one of these people can be Republican liars. There's got to be some truth to the charges.
If Kerry is truly the victim of a right-wing slime attack and all of these scurrilous charges are really just a pack of lies, then why hasn't he put this story to bed by walking out in front of the press and the American people, stared in to the camera, and explained how his honor has been trashed? Why hasn't he been willing to talk open and fully about his Vietnam service and dispel once and for all these vicious attacks on his character? More than anything else it is Kerry's reluctance, or inability, to answer these questions personally that is the most damning piece of evidence for the American public.
We'll see where this George Bush National Guard service story goes on the umpteenth go around on this issue, but because of those two key points it is going to be difficult for this story to really hurt the President the same way the swift-boat story has hurt John Kerry. None of this is going to stop the Bush-haters in the press from trying to make it an issue, but it is going to be really hard unless there is something legitimately new, and substantive - and right now that doesn't seem to be the case.
The tag-team follow up to the National Guard foray is the unrolling of the Kitty Kelly personal attack on the Bush family that is scheduled for next week when Kelly is lined up to appear on The Today Show for three consecutive days. This should be of more concern to the Democrats than Republicans for this story has every bit as good a chance to hurt Kerry as it does Bush, because of the very real possibility of a backlash over the personal and tabloid nature of the attack.
Given the intensity of this campaign over the last few months and the vitriol (if not almost pathological hatred for Bush on the Left) it is not surprising that this campaign will continue to get uglier and uglier. The Democrats and the media began banging on Bush as far back as last fall when the Democratic primary campaign began in earnest. In August when Bush and Kerry's opponents struck back the Democrats howled at all the negative campaigning. This is going to be an intense two months and it is going to get considerably uglier between now and election day. |
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fortdixlover
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 1476
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:38 pm Post subject: Re: Big Media Counterattacks |
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Sigh...
It's time for the next SwiftBoat ad. How about Kerry "negotiating" with our enemies, and predicting only a few thousand Vietnamese would need 'relocation'?
-- FDL |
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Steve Z
Rear Admiral
Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 687
Location: West Hartford CT
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:42 pm Post subject: Attacks on Vietnam Records |
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There is one big difference between the SBVT attacks on Kerry and the questions about President Bush's National Guard service. Whether or not George W. Bush ever went AWOL, George W. Bush never publicly criticized his fellow National Guard pilots (or anyone else in the military) either during his service or after his discharge, and he never met with anyone representing a country hostile to the United States, except in his official capacity as President.
I hope that the SBVT will soon air ads that will show that John Kerry unfairly criticized his fellow soldiers in Vietnam in front of the Senate, and betrayed his country by "negotiating" with the enemy in Paris while he was still in the Naval Reserves.
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The traitor will crater! |
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jataylor11
Vice Admiral
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 856
Location: Woodbridge, Virginia
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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I read that only 2.7 million soldiers actually served in Vietnam, out of a total in service of almost 8 million. I wonder how the remaining 5 million plus feel about their "evading" service?
Seems to me that the DNC simpering sycophants are telling me that these 5 million Veterans are the equivalent of those who hid in Canada and those who went to jail.
Looks like any clear thinking Vet who did not go to Nam should turn himself in for evading service or vote against Kerry in protest of these insults. |
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one more captins mast
LCDR
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 438
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:25 pm Post subject: not BIG media any more |
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Hugh Hewitt etal are big media, the internet is big media,
these "hired guns" have no bullets "left" its just the same old lie
we and uncle Walter Crapkite have the only brains in the U S A
and that is the story we are sticking to and so what History
will call us "fools and tools" its what we want to do.
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the strange mr aj |
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Stevie
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 1451
Location: Queen Creek, Arizona
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:34 pm Post subject: |
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| now that I think back, I was dating one of those AWOL guys in about '64 - 65. He went AWOL at Ft Hood..... he was AWOL for several yrs... he wrote to me almost daily keeping me up to date on his (and others) AWOL activities ..... he really wanted to go to Vietnam.... couldn't understand why he had to stay AWOL, hide out there with a bunch of other AWOL'ERS and keep that base running.... |
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2ndamendsis
PO3
Joined: 08 Sep 2004
Posts: 288
Location: NJ
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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Stevie
I guess I married one of those AWOL guys too, LOL! Only he hopped over to the mid east & far east.
What I can tell you is that he got the same treatment when he arrived back on US soil. He/we have never forgotten JFnK and his treason.
_________________
PROUD wife of Army ASA Vet - 66-70
mom of Sailor - Gulf 1
daughter of WW11 Army Vet |
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jack white
Seaman
Joined: 04 Aug 2004
Posts: 179
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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The Big Media "counterattacks" ain't Inchon. As a a matter of fact, they are even being laughed at by some of the--Big Media.
Fortunately this keeps alive the SBVT story, because most print stories have begun with "After John Kerry was attacked for weeks..." So we can throw the gloves off now. Yes, we always will have Paris. And Kansas City. |
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