SwiftVets.com

[ASPB]

Hattip: Byron York, The National Review

John Kerry’s Time Warp
For the Democratic candidate, it’s always 1969.


Why does Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) talk incessantly about Vietnam?

Obviously, it has given him a great political advantage in past campaigns and he hopes it will do the same in his race for the White House. But there might be another reason. Perhaps more than any other presidential candidate in recent memory, Kerry seems to be living in another time, playing a movie of Vietnam over and over in his mind.

In fact, he is often playing an actual movie of Vietnam over and over on his television. Consider this scene from a remarkable profile of Kerry published in the Boston Globe in October 1996, when Kerry was in a tough reelection battle:

Kerry told reporter Charles Sennott the oft-repeated story of the February 1969 firefight in which Kerry attacked the Viet Cong who ambushed his Swift boat. Kerry won the Silver Star, as well as a Purple Heart, for his efforts. But the story wasn't just the firefight itself. It was also Kerry's reaction to it.

The future senator was so "focused on his future ambitions," Sennott reported, that not long after the fight, he bought a Super-8 movie camera, returned to the scene, and reenacted the skirmish on film. During their interview, Kerry played the tape for Sennott.

"I'll show you where they shot from. See? That's the hole covered up with reeds," Kerry said as he ran the tape in slow motion.

Kerry told Sennott that his decision to reenact the fight on film was no big deal — "just something I did, no great meaning to it." But it's clear that the old movie is a huge deal. "Through hours of watching the films in the den of his newly renovated Beacon Hill mansion, it becomes apparent that these are memories and footage he returns to often," Sennott wrote.

"Kerry jumps repeatedly from the couch to adjust the Sony large screen TV in his home entertainment center, making sure the picture is clear, the color correct. He fast forwards, rewinds and freeze frames the footage. His running commentary — vivid, sometimes touching, sometimes self-serving — never misses a beat."

In John Kerry's home-entertainment center, it's always 1969.

It's sometimes that way in his campaign, too. Is Kerry's the only campaign to play Jimi Hendrix — specifically, "Fire" from the 1967 album Are You Experienced? — at rallies? Other candidates — like John Edwards, with his theme song, John Mellencamp's "Small Town" — aren't exactly cutting edge, but they have chosen somewhat newer stuff.

And what about the music on Kerry's bus? Before the Iowa caucuses, Washington Post reporter Ceci Connelly described the candidate hanging out on the bus with Peter Yarrow, his old friend from Peter, Paul, and Mary. "Pedro, sing us a song," Kerry ordered one day. Yarrow picked up a guitar and began to play and sing — and later waxed nostalgic about the antiwar rallies he attended way back when with Kerry and Eugene McCarthy.

Earlier, Connelly wrote, when Yarrow sang "Puff the Magic Dragon" at an event in a private home in Ames, Iowa, "Kerry lifted his fingers to his mouth for a quick toke on an imaginary joint. You can almost see his thick mane of silver hair returning to the shaggy brown do of those days."

Even Kerry's latest soundbite, the speech in Ohio Tuesday in which he described President Bush as a "walking contradiction," was apparently a reference to the old days. In this case, it was Kris Kristofferson's "The Pilgrim, Chapter 33, " from 1970, with its line, "He's a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction."

This man is living in a time warp. No wonder Kerry sees any conflict — Gulf War I, Afghanistan, Gulf War II — as a potential Vietnam. In Kerry's world, Vietnam is running on a continuous loop on that big screen TV — with Jimi, Kris, and Peter, Paul, and Mary singing in the background.

Some people become stuck in the time period in which they had their most intense experiences. Others, perhaps with more mental or emotional flexibility, move on. Kerry seems to be one of the former.

At 60 years old, he appears obsessed with the past in ways that the 57 year-old George W. Bush isn't. And Kerry seems far older than, say, the 71 year-old Donald Rumsfeld — a man who is always moving ahead, not inclined to lecture about the way things were 30 or 40 years ago.

Kerry's penchant for looking back would not be a good trait in a president who will have to deal with a distinctly 21st century, post-9/11 world. America faces threats that were unheard of in Kerry's formative years. While those threats build, Kerry is turning on Hendrix, toking on an imaginary joint, and telling you about Vietnam.

And just imagine the inauguration. The new president delivers his speech, waves to the crowd, and cries..."Pedro, sing us a song!"
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[kate]

Why does Kerry Talk incessantly about Vietnam?

Kerry says :
"It was a wonderful time in all its craziness. There was a great bond, a great connection that formed"

"We would come into port, go into this magnificent French town and then the next day, boom, back on patrol and back into it."

"From here we'd drive into town and you'd go quick because you never knew who was hiding on the side of the road," he said. Once in town on leave, Kerry and other young officers sipped French wine and partied along Vung Tau's waterfront boulevard.

Jan 19, 1998 interview in VUNG TAU, Vietnam
http://www.s-t.com/daily/01-98/01-19-98/a05sr031.htm


That quote about 'it was a wonderful time' always bothered me a bit, but not being a vet, it's not for me to really say.
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one of..... We The People

[Theresa Alwood]

Why does Kerry say so much on Vietnam...because it is the only thing of record he can talk about. If he talks about his voting record people will realize just how far to the left he has gone. Most people have forgotten about Vietnam except those who lived it. John "f" kerry thinks that the vets have just a little voice and we wont be heart. I want us all to get out there and vote and just show how much power those vets do have. If we can get everyone on the same page we can win this election for President Bush. We just need to get the word out from vet to vet!!!

[nakona]

[LewWaters]

Maybe he made the movie with future political aspirations in mind? He likes to think of himself as a hero and not one person I served with ever regarded themselves as a hero.

[kate]

thanks nakona for your insight on that comment
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one of..... We The People

[nakona]

You're welcome.
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13F20P

[Marine4life]

It's simple, he so desperatly wants to be a hero like all the rest of the Vets who actually served at least one tour. I think of him like a treky, you know those that believe startrek was real and run around dressed like them. Kerry is a Vietky!! He is desperate for an identity and he thought that the Vets would treat him like all the rest of the "Band of Brothers". He obviously underestimated the memory of the ones he took a big crap on. So that leaves him nothing but a traitor, that can't think on his own. He bashes Bush and adds nothing new to the mix, thats because he has nothing planned. It says a lot for a man that can't move ahead in the polls when his enemy is at his worst point in his term. He can't stay even so how does he expect to win. Just a self created Hero in his own mind. I suppose when he gets spanked in November he will submit himself for the 4th PH and a CMH. Semper Fi.
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Helicopter Marine Attack Squadron 169 which is now HMLA-169. They added Huey's to compliment the Cobra effectiveness. When I served we just had Snakes.

[carpro]

[War Dog]

More than likely, his time in Vietnam was the only time that Kerry felt that he had people that actually liked him, and was close to him. We all know how close you get with your fellow members of your unit, be it Navy, Army, Air Force or Marines. So Kerry has to relieve those four and a half months, cause nobody has ever treated him like his crew members did in Vietnam.

Everybody else since then including his anti-war buddies, and politicians since he first got elected only were friends with him because of either what he could do for them, or what they could get out of him. He's a loser, a user, and an opportunistist. With him, it's always me, me, me. His whole world revolves around himself, and what he can do to get the common man or woman to vote him into office, so he can continue to have that power, and be a part of an institution like Congress which caters to the power hungry, ego driven people who belong to that 'love me first' crowd.

You're right, he's a pure wannabee, and will always want that which he wasn't able to earn for himself through unselfish sacrifice, honor, and love for his fellow man. Everything he has ever done, was done with the reason of what it would do for him, his political future, and his desires, wants and needs.

FRIGGIN WAR WOOF!
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"When people are in trouble, they call the cops.

When cops need help, they call the K-9 unit."

[Carl Bowman]

Kerry , talks incessantly about Vietnam because he is

Beaucoup. Dinky Dou Number 10

[sdpatriot]

[stop kerry]

Because he is petrified that Americans will focus on his total anti-war actions in 1970-1971 while POW's died and were tourched in Vietnam. This includes his illegal visits to meet the North Viet communists in France,
his metal throwing BS in Apr.71 AND HIS MEETING IN NOV.1971 TO DISCUSS THE MURDER OF SEVERAL SENATORS 'TO SHORTEN THE WAR'???!!! IF THIS EVER GETS INTO A 30 SEC. AD EVERYONE WILL SEE WHY HE IS UNFIT TO BE COMMANDER IN CHIEF. WHATEVER HE DID OR DID NOT DO IN VIETNAM FOR 4 MONTHS WILL BE FORGOTTEN. THE MAN'S A TRAITOR AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN TRIED FOR SEDITION!!!

[Marine4life]

I don't think that there is a statute of limitations on the crimes that he committed. So we might be able to get the trial that is overdue. There has to be an Attorney out there that is a Veteran who could pursue this. File a legal motion and we would be front page in their own blather paper. File a Motion that references the 14th ammendment and challenge his fitness for CIC and his current office and the Constitutionality of his nomination for office based on the Constitution. Even if we lose the Motion the word would get out and he would be exposed. Make the Motion available to the press, especially Fox. Semper Fi.
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Helicopter Marine Attack Squadron 169 which is now HMLA-169. They added Huey's to compliment the Cobra effectiveness. When I served we just had Snakes.

[jalexson]