SwiftVets.com

Arty Guy · Seaman Joined: 20 Aug 2004 Posts: 190

Upon reflection, it seems to me that few swing voters had their minds changed by the ads, although the ads did much to undermine Kerry's overall credibility in the minds of those who were trying to make a thoughtful decision. It seems to me that one of the major impacts of the ads was to help motivate the conservatives who sat out previous elections to get up off their rear ends, stop complaining, and go vote. The fact that Bush's totals were so high indicates that turning out previously indifferent voters made the difference. This is where I think the ads really paid off.

Be all that as it may, we all owe a debt of gratitude to all the Swifties for doing this great service for our country. Well done and we non navy people salute you. We were glad to do what we could, but you guys bore the burden.

republicanveteran · Commander Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 333 Location: Texas

Artyguy

The most important thing the Swiftie ads did was remind veterans of what Kerry did in 1971.

I will be interested to see the breakdown of all the votes to see which way veterans voted. I am confident that is 80% against Kerry.

Swifties are owed a proud salute

scotty61 · LCDR Joined: 07 May 2004 Posts: 419 Location: Glyndon MN

THe real impact of the SBVFT ads is that today we are not saying "President-elect Kerry". The ads kept Kerry off of his feet through August and part of September. The effect of the "Christmas in Cambodia" cannot be "misunderestimated". Politicians don't fare well when they are screwed over by their own words.
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John Kerry. A Neville Chamberlain for our times.

8dayweek · Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:26 pm Post subject:

I think the swiftboat ads had an early profound effect on the Kerry campaign when it first broke, and halted his momentum. But they might have been a little early, and with the constant smears of the press, the effect wore off some.

But I think that when Kerry started trashing the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, people who were on the fence said "Hey, look. John Kerry is acting today just like these guys said he acted in 1971." It might have been subliminal, but I bet it hit a lot of people who had an open mind.

WilliamShipley · Seaman Recruit Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Posts: 37

I frankly think the Swift Vets were the deciding factor in the election. First of all, 3% while a large lead is still only changing the minds of 1 1/2% of the people.

John Kerry had only one thing going for him: His record of being a "War Hero". That's why he featured it at the convention. The Swift Vets took that away from him. He could only use it sparingly for fear that the spotlight would shine on it. There is a percentage of the population who feel his anti-war efforts are heroic, but they weren't going to vote for Bush no matter who the Democrats nominated.

The other thing the Swift Vets did was make him hide from the convention on. He didn't dare do press conferences or uncontrolled interviews. He couldn't face a direct question. That constraint must have cost him.

Had the media actually picked up on either the discharge story or the direction by Hanoi, we could have all gone to bed early last night.

Stee · Seaman Recruit Joined: 03 Sep 2004 Posts: 45

Amen my brothers--- with the media feeding bs to the huddled masses with no answer to all the lies the swifties turned the tide and opened eyes throughout this country... thank you a million times over.........

Guest · Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:46 pm Post subject:

kmudd · Master Chief Petty Officer Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 825

Paul R. · PO3 Joined: 03 Sep 2004 Posts: 273 Location: Illinois

Interesting, when I got exit polled, one of the questions was what issue I felt was most important, the war on terror, economy, etc. I selected "morality", not because of abortion or stem cell research, but because of what I'd learned here about John Kerry's character. (Interesting that there was no choice under that question for "character".)
I don't know how anybody could watch "The Sampan Incident" mini-doc and vote for Kerry. I wonder how many other people did the same thing on their exit poll?? So, once again, because they are too biased to even ask the right question, the MSM is clueless!
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Paul R.

Steve Z · Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 11:12 pm Post subject: Effect of SBVT

I agree that the early ads had a major effect on the Kerry campaign. Kerry spent most of his convention bragging about how he could fight terrorism as well as Bush because he was a "war hero". He got a small "bounce" out of his convention, and hoped to cruise through August (while people don't pay much attention to campaigns) without spending much resources, and the Swifties demolished his "war hero" image, and turned most military people and their families against Kerry. I'm not sure the Bush campaign could have done this, because of all the questions the MSM were raising about Bush's National Guard service.

Bush was actually leading before the RNC, and got a 5-point bounce from his convention, but he blew the lead during the first debate, and was tied going into the third debate. Meanwhile, media spin was sidetracking SBVT into debunking lots of petty disputes about who did what during various incidents concerning Kerry in Vietnam, rather than focusing on his later betrayal of the troops before the Senate. Navy Chief did a great job here, but SBVT was forced on the defensive by MSM.

Toward the end of the campaign, it's hard to tell whether the last SBVT ads in Florida and Ohio, or Kerry's blunder about Dick Cheney's daughter in the third debate made the difference...an exit poll might tell us that, but who can believe an exit poll?

Everybody got sidetracked by the argument about the missing weapons in Iraq, but we can count on the MSM to distract us from more pressing issues by repeating lies that we need to debunk.

There are lots of skeletons left in Kerry's closet to be exposed for all to see, but at least Kerry will only be a Senator, not President. If he had been elected President, he might have pardoned himself after the fact! But since he's only a Senator, I'm wondering what other little gems Navy Chief might pull out of Vietnam archives over the next two years, before Kerry runs for re-election?
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The traitor will crater!

fr11 · Seaman Joined: 20 Aug 2004 Posts: 154

Most importantly, the SwiftVets are the only reason a lot of people ever found out about Kerry's anti-war activites after he came back from Vietnam. Honestly, I didn't even know Kerry protested the Vietnam war until the first SwiftVets ad came out. Americans don't want a former war protester as their CIC during a time of war -- and there's no way the media was going to tell us about it.

THANK YOU SWIFTIES!!!

Wing Wiper · Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 11:44 pm Post subject:

I doubt we'll ever know what the full effect was, but it got this vet up off his butt to vote, and I spent a lot of time spreading the word to others. I really believe that 250 former comrades of Kerry saying he was "unfit to command" had a big effect. It makes you wonder why the people he served in combat with didn't support him for president. Steve Gardner, John O'Neill, Bud Day, Van Odell, thanks, you really made the point. Those ads hurt.

stevec · Seaman Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 192

SAVED OUR COUNTRY

Praise to the Swifties and POW's
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Keep Kerry Out
Kerry is a TRAITOR
Kerry is UNFIT

Steve Christensen

Anker-Klanker · Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 12:07 am Post subject:

Just heard Brit Hume in his Political Grapevine segment say that of all the 527s, the Swift Boat Vets had the most impact on this election. I think he said that some political analyst organization came to that conclusion. And since the SBV "output," as discerned by most people, was their ads, then ergo the conclusion is that the SBV ads had the most effect of all the 527 ads.

(BTW, Moveon.org was included in "527s" though I don't think, technically, they are a 527.)

GIaunt · Seaman Joined: 08 Oct 2004 Posts: 174

Well, I can tell you that until the Swiftees I had no idea that Senator Kerry was the soldier who testified in 1971.... that changed my mind about even giving him a chance...... (I have never contributed to a political fund ever before, but I gave here...)

The other difference the Swiftees made -- they restored the honor of the Viet Nam Vets. Until now, hardly anyone brought up their service.... Until now, no one was even considering how wrong the movies are about these noble soldiers.....

The common belief that VietNam was a mistake is being revisited. We are looking at it again--- not hiding it as a national blemish. The swiftees made me curious -- so I researched what happened..... I believe that the VietNam war contained the spread of communism -- how it ended was WRONG, but that was NOT the fault of the soldiers, but of the politicians and propogandists.....

In restoring your honor, you made sure that Abu Grayb (sp??) did not become the dishonor of all the troops serving in Iraq....

God Bless.....