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mach9
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 05 Oct 2004
Posts: 97
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 Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:43 pm Post subject: Swift Ads in Minn; Kerry trots out Amb. Peterson to refute |
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Campaign doesn't get any quieter before Election Day
Matt Mckinney, Star Tribune, November 1, 2004 MINNPRES1101
Even as the presidential candidates themselves stayed away from Minnesota on Sunday -- for a change -- their campaigns continued a feverish buildup to Tuesday's election: Volunteers went door to door, representatives of the two major candidates crisscrossed the state and a last-minute ad war broke out regarding Sen. John Kerry's military service in Vietnam.
In other words, no quiet before the election storm awaits Minnesota's voters. Today, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards and Andrew Card, President Bush's chief of staff, are visiting the state.
Edwards will speak at a rally at Hamline University's Hutton Arena, 1569 Hewitt Av. in St. Paul. Doors open at 7:15 a.m.
Card will speak at the Old City Hall in Rochester at 9 a.m., at the Duluth Victory Office at 327 Superior St. at 11:35 a.m. and at the Moorhead Victory Office at 1001 Central Av., Suite A, at 2 p.m.
U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and Gov. Tim Pawlenty, meanwhile, will begin a 24-hour bus stop campaign at 7 a.m. at Bush-Cheney headquarters in St. Paul that will take them to Rochester, Owatonna, Mankato, Hutchinson, St. Cloud, Alexandria, Fergus Falls, Moorhead, Detroit Lakes, Wadena, Brainerd and Little Falls.
"The message will be: Vote. Vote for George Bush. That's the message," Coleman said Sunday. "The purpose at this point is getting your folks to the poll. This is grass roots at its best."
Coleman said the campaign stops will be to promote Bush and some state House races.
"We're going to do everything we can do," he said.
On television
A wave of new television ads cropped up over the weekend after a Vietnam veterans group critical of Kerry's wartime service bought $500,000 of airtime in Minnesota alone for the final three days of the campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth have spent $19.5 million nationwide questioning Kerry's service and his decision to speak out against the war after having fought in it.
The ad buy is huge by Minnesota standards. Political campaigns typically spend no more than $250,000 for a full week's advertising.
The ads brought a quick response from the Democrats, who brought in a former POW and onetime ambassador to Vietnam, Pete Peterson, to make two appearances Sunday on behalf of the Kerry campaign. He urged people in St. Paul and Rochester to dismiss the latest Swift Boat ads.
"The Swift Boat ads have been largely discredited, if not all discredited, and now having drawn in the former POWs into this thing they are attempting to steal the prestige of the POW community," he said.
Peterson, who was imprisoned for 6½ years in Vietnam, also narrates a new television ad released by the Kerry campaign over the weekend in response to the Swift Boat ad. The piece, which was produced a few weeks ago but held in reserve, was airing Sunday on the two network stations that had aired the Swift Boat ad, WCCO, Channel 4, and KARE, Channel 11.
Peterson said the ads unfairly portray Vietnam-era POWs as unified in their opposition to Kerry.
"There are others of us out here who feel very strongly that George W. Bush has in fact led America in the wrong direction, and we want a new regime change in the United States," he said. Peterson was the first postwar ambassador to Vietnam. His posting there ended in July 2001.
U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., meanwhile, appeared at three St. Paul churches on Sunday to urge people to get to the polls.
A prominent role
The flurry of visits reflects not only the gravity of this election, but also the unusual role that Minnesota plays. The state has figured more prominently in this election than in those of recent years because of the narrow gap between Kerry and Bush among voters statewide. Both camps are eager to take Minnesota, one of less than a dozen so-called battleground states considered an indicator of which way the race will go nationally.
Underscoring the importance of the state's electoral votes, President Bush mentioned his latest stop in Minnesota in an interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw on Sunday, saying that he got words of encouragement from Pawlenty during a rally Saturday at Target Center.
"The governor leaned over and whispered in my ear: 'We're going to win,' " Bush told Brokaw.
Campaigners for both the Democrats and Republicans stressed Sunday that their efforts now lie not in convincing undecided voters to join their ranks but to ensure that their voters get to the polls.
That's one of the reasons why Card is visiting today, said Peter Hong, spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign in Minnesota.
"He's one of the closest advisers to President Bush and will be an excellent spokesperson to go out and motivate our volunteers," Hong said.
Staff writer Chuck Haga contributed to this report.
Matt McKinney is at mckinney@startribune.com. |
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Anker-Klanker
Admiral
Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 1033
Location: Richardson, TX
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Typical. Swift Boat ads "discredited." Peterson shown in a very sympathetic, even authoritative, role. Well we know which side this reporter weighs in on. |
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Paul R.
PO3
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 273
Location: Illinois
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 8:52 pm Post subject: |
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Notice the wording:
| Quote: | | "...we want a new regime change in the United States," |
How about a new regime change in the MSM, Mr. Peterson? 
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Paul R. |
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gleanerl
Ensign
Joined: 09 Sep 2004
Posts: 57
Location: western nebraska
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| Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 9:45 pm Post subject: |
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personally, i find using the word 'regime' in connection with the u.s. government offensive.
even if kerry were to win, it would offend me if someone blathered about the 'kerry regime.'
the u.s.a. does not have regimes and i'll be dipped in chocolate before i stand by silently, nodding my head in concession at the point.
it rubs me the wrong way.
it's the principle of the thing.....
don't even get me started.
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Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
William Safire (1929 - ) |
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neverforget
Vice Admiral
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
Posts: 875
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| Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:21 am Post subject: |
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| gleanerl wrote: | personally, i find using the word 'regime' in connection with the u.s. government offensive.
even if kerry were to win, it would offend me if someone blathered about the 'kerry regime.'
the u.s.a. does not have regimes and i'll be dipped in chocolate before i stand by silently, nodding my head in concession at the point.
it rubs me the wrong way.
it's the principle of the thing.....
don't even get me started.
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AMEN, brother.
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US Army Security Agency
1965-1971 |
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ord33
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 670
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:48 am Post subject: |
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Speaking of the use of "regime change" --You probably already knew Kerry called for the change of the Bush "regime", but after looking at this article from about a year and a half ago, it really puts things into perspective and why he said the things when he did. What Cheney said about Kerry changing his stances for Howard Dean couldnt be more true. This Boston Globe article from April 3, 2003 lays it out pretty good. Also, it was here where he mentioned meeting with other foreign leaders and the UN and such as well as people shouldnt "Monday Morning Quarterback" war efforts---ha!, so this makes a pretty interesting read, looking back at things.
| Quote: | PETERBOROUGH, N.H. - Senator John F. Kerry said yesterday that President Bush committed a ''breach of trust'' in the eyes of many United Nations members by going to war with Iraq, creating a diplomatic chasm that will not be bridged as long as Bush remains in office.
''What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States,'' Kerry said in a speech at the Peterborough Town Library.
Despite pledging two weeks ago to cool his criticism of the administration once war began, Kerry unleashed a barrage of criticism as US troops fought within 25 miles of Baghdad.
By echoing the ''regime change'' line popular with hundreds of thousands of antiwar protesters who have demonstrated across the nation in recent weeks, the Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential contender seemed to be reaching out to a newly invigorated constituency as rival Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont and a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, closes in on Kerry in opinion polls.
Kerry said that he had spoken with foreign diplomats and several world leaders as recently as Monday while fund-raising in New York and that they told him they felt betrayed when Bush resorted to war in Iraq before they believed diplomacy had run its course.
He said the leaders, whom he did not identify, believed that Bush wanted to ''end-run around the UN.''
''I don't think they're going to trust this president, no matter what,'' Kerry said. ''I believe it deeply, that it will take a new president of the United States, declaring a new day for our relationship with the world, to clear the air and turn a new page on American history.''
With a dig at Bush's previous lack of foreign policy experience, Kerry said he would usher in a new US foreign policy if he stood before the United Nations as president.
''I believe we can have a golden age of American diplomacy,'' he said, outlining his own foreign policy credentials in the speech. ''But it will take a new president who is prepared to lead, and who has, frankly, a little more experience than visiting the sum total of two countries'' before taking office.
The criticism appeared to contradict statements Kerry made on March 18, just a day before Bush authorized military action to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
Kerry, who previously had been critical of Bush's efforts to reach out to the international community, was reluctant that day to answer when a television crew asked him whether the administration had handled its diplomatic efforts poorly.
''You know, we're beyond that now,'' the senator said after addressing the International Association of Fire Fighters. ''We have to come together as a country to get this done and heal the wounds.''
Kerry, a Navy veteran of Vietnam, said he strongly supported US troops. ''There will be plenty of time here to be critical about how we arrived here,'' he said at that time. In response to questions after his speech yesterday, Kerry reiterated his support for the troops.
He also joined the administration in blasting ''armchair generals'' who are criticizing the war plan.
''War is war,'' he said. ''It's tough, and I think there's a little too much armchair quarterbacking and Monday-morning reviewing going on. I think we need to trust in the process for a few days here. This is only [14] days old, and they've achieved quite a remarkable advance in that period of time.''
When asked to square his criticism with his pledge of restraint two weeks earlier, Kerry first said that he had tempered his criticism of the administration's diplomatic efforts.
Then he said: ''It is possible that the word `regime change' is too harsh. Perhaps it is.''
Finally, he said his overall criticism of the administration was part of ''the healthy democracy of the United States of America'' and no different from some of the war critiques published on the front page of major newspapers. ''Is that unpatriotic?'' he asked.
A top Republican strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kerry was ''free to express his beliefs, but if anyone should be aware of the sensitivities of how our leaders should be conducting themselves while we're at war, I would think Senator Kerry would.''
''The president doesn't have the luxury of a campaign timeline to address the crisis of terrorism and its manifestation in Saddam Hussein,'' the strategist said.
During his opening remarks and on several occasions as he answered questions from the audience of more than 100 people, Kerry said he was the most experienced candidate in either party in terms of foreign policy and national security background.
''We need a president of the United States who has a vision of the world that is very different from what these excessively ideological unilateralists want to thrust on us and the rest of the world,'' said the 18-year veteran of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Taking aim at Attorney General John D. Ashcroft at one point, the senator added: ''One of the reasons why I am running for president of the United States is that I look forward with pleasure and zeal for the opportunity to appoint an attorney general of the United States who believes and reads and abides by the Constitution.''
Kerry was equally critical of his rivals for the Democratic nomination.
''I believe that I have a better capacity than any other candidate running in the field to be able to stand up and address questions of national security and America's role in the world with credibility and history, and to be able to move us to those areas where we win, which is on the domestic agenda,'' he said.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company |
This article really sparked my attention after reading it....(I didnt bold everything toward the end I found interesting, just too much stuff!) |
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