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William O'Rourke: "GOP builds on smear campaign"
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Me#1You#10
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 2:24 pm    Post subject: William O'Rourke: "GOP builds on smear campaign" Reply with quote

And THIS from a "pundit" using an nd.edu e-mail? Please see our associated post at the top of the forum inre this MSM canard.

Quote:
GOP builds on smear campaign
By William O'Rourke
Chicago Sun-Times
September 12, 2004

Both Bill Clinton and the Kerry campaign went under the knife over the Labor Day weekend. The former president had his chest cut open, and John Kerry's lagging campaign fortunes were dissected by media sawbones on TV and in newspapers.

That Clinton's heart troubles are gauged a setback for the Democrats, given his likely absence on the hustings, highlights the Kerry campaign's precarious state: The post-convention bump in the polls for President Bush is heard by many as the tolling of the bells for the hope of homeland regime change.

It does take a willing suspension of disbelief to conclude there was no coordination between Karl Rove and his old Texas buddies bankrolling the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The timing of the anti-Kerry swift boaters' ads is the smoking gun: tucked between the two conventions, their attacks on Kerry's military service dominated campaign news and provided background to the charges leveled at the Republican convention. Imagine all those speeches denouncing Kerry without the weeks of swift boat-inspired controversy preceding them. Instead of the born-again Dixiecrat Zell Miller appearing merely enraged and vindictive, he would have looked like a madman -- but the poisonous atmosphere created by the swift boaters and their supporters' slanders made the GOP convention's anti-Kerry diatribes palatable.

Kerry, alas, hasn't effectively challenged those calumnies. (nor, one might note, has this pundit) The Republicans understand this campaign is the first post-Florida 2000 national contest, and they are running it as they ran their after-election effort: Take no prisoners. The White House knows it's in the fight of its life, whereas Kerry thinks he can still go windsurfing in the waters off Nantucket without being lampooned by his detractors -- and supporters.

A presidential race, like the office itself, requires self-sacrifice -- something Bill Clinton never quite understood. But George W. Bush's public life is just that: a show for the public. Kerry has climbed upon a national stage, but doesn't seem to realize he is so completely on display. America is not Massachusetts, where Kerry's own tastes and idiosyncrasies are well-known and tolerated. Clinton never curbed his philandering and Kerry needs to cut back his vacation avocations.

The Bush team has made this campaign about the future. Kerry played into its hands by making his pitch about the past. What Kerry must do is make the remaining weeks about the future, too: what the future will look like if Bush gets a second term.

(me#1 note: All emphasis mine)

Chicago Sun-Times (con't)


Last edited by Me#1You#10 on Sun Sep 12, 2004 3:06 pm; edited 1 time in total
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vietnamvet173
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 2:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Me#1You#10
Quote:

And THIS from a "pundit" using an nd.edu e-mail?


Looks like he is a leftist professor who doesn't have a clue. He cannot understand that regular people can hold John Kerry in contempt.

I found this on the nd.com website.

William O'Rourke
Faculty
Professor
English
465 Decio Faculty Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(Phone and e-mail Deleted by Admin)

http://www.nd.edu/~worourke/
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neverforget
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, Notre Dame did beat Michigan yesterday. But I imagine this professor would find it to be just another military-like activity, and not sensitive enough.
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mj_brutus
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 3:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LOL! This egghead's "evidence" that the Bush campaign coordinated witht he SBVT was simply that the Vets timed their capmaign prior to the RNC and that they ahd an impact! IOW, it worked well, therefore it had to be an RNC plot.

The paranoia of the lefties never fails to amaze me.
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vietnamvet173
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 3:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mj_brutus wrote:
LOL! This egghead's "evidence" that the Bush campaign coordinated witht he SBVT was simply that the Vets timed their capmaign prior to the RNC and that they ahd an impact! IOW, it worked well, therefore it had to be an RNC plot.

The paranoia of the lefties never fails to amaze me.


Here is my letter to O'Rouke.

In regard to: GOP builds on smear campaign
By William O'Rourke
Chicago Sun-Times
September 12, 2004


Mr. O'Rourke,

“Something is happening and you don’t know what is do you Mr. Jones.” bob dylan
It is not the Republicans behind Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. (SBVT) it is people like me.

My name is Aaron Greenwood. I served as a medic with the 173ed Airborne Brigade (separate) from February 1967 to February 1968. I was attached to E Troop 17th Cavalry until I came down with Malaria. After recovering in Cam Ranh Bay I served the rest of my tour with Brigade HHC.

John Kerry’s betrayal of the Vietnam Vet is on the record both in print and on film. He cannot deny his past. The SBVT, by holding John Kerry accountable, have opened wounds that have never healed and that is very good indeed. No matter what the Democrats, John Kerry, academics and the mainstream media (Old Media) has to say, the events of over 30 years ago DO MATTER.

I cannot express the anger I felt when I saw the video of an arrogant Kerry saluting the nation with the words “reporting for duty” acting like a hero in a Hollywood movie. Perhaps he was fantasizing himself a Patton or a Washington or a Caesar. This man, an officer in the United States Navy, who in time of war went before Congress and the world to promote his selfish ambitions at the expense of his beloved band of brothers. This man, this ugly man drew a picture of the Vietnam Vet as rapist, butcher and barbarian. Now this man who betrayed us all wants us to pretend he is a war hero and warrior. His record, his own words and actions say otherwise.

It is not about Republicans it is about John Kerry’s betrayal of the Vietnam Vet.

Best regards from one of over 53,000 people who have so far donated to SBVT,

Aaron
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mj_brutus
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 4:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

vietnamvet173:

That was a beautiful letter. While it was undoubtedly wasted on the likes of Mr. O'Rourke who will never understand the meaning, let alone the value of a man's honor, I am glad that you posted here. Here where it will also be read by those like yourself who possess honor in the fullest measure and have suffered most cruelly from men like Kerry, who don't.
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scotty61
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 4:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

vietnamvet176,

Do us a favor and post his reply, if any. If he chooses not to respond let us know that as well. Great letter!
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baldeagl
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 4:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK, let me see if I can understand this. O'Rourke is upset because Kerry is losing. And the reason Kerry is losing is because:
1) The swiftvets had good timing
2) Bill Clinton is no longer available to prop Kerry up
3) Kerry hasn't "effectively challenged" the charges
4) Kerry goes windsurfing off Nantucket instead of campaigning hard
5) Kerry won't self-sacrifice in order to win
6) Kerry takes too many vacations

And Karl Rove is behind it all. Bush's Svengali has pulled off the impossible! He's even got the opposing candidate to behave like a spoiled rich kid! All hail the mighty Rove.

You can't make this stuff up, folks. It takes a serious college education to achieve this level of erudition. Very Happy
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BC
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 5:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You need to remember, think about how frustrated we are that this creep kerry is even in the position that The Swift Vets have to do this. How frustrated we are how the liberal press is just falling all over kerry. Now think how frustrated they are that they have chosen an idiot to run against Bush. To have any way of getting their idiot elected they have to lie cheat lie cheat lie cheat lie……….
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drjohn
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"It does take a willing suspension of disbelief to conclude there was no coordination between Karl Rove and his old Texas buddies bankrolling the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth."

It seems to me that all these twits are graduates of the Michael Moore school of journalistic slander. This again is nothing but innuendo, that twilight existing just beyond the borders of reality.

Failing to provide evidence of accusation has become the province of the Democratic smear machine.
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vietnamvet173
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 9:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

scotty61 wrote:
vietnamvet176,

Do us a favor and post his reply, if any. If he chooses not to respond let us know that as well. Great letter!


I sure will.
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Bernard Cullen
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 10:31 pm    Post subject: Rebuttal Emailed to Prof. O'Rourke Reply with quote

On reflection, Prof. O'Rourke may not have time to read all the rebuttals he is likely to receive.

*********************************************
Prof. O'Rourke:

With all due respect, the Swift Boat Veterans as a whole are not part of a smear campaign. It is fine to disagree with President Bush and to support John Kerry, however, to resort to gross calumnies and unsubstantiated charges parallels exactly the behavior that is coming back to haunt Mr. Kerry. I trust you teach your students to construct an argument by looking carefully and objectively at both sides of an issue, the more so when that issue is one about which they have strong personal feelings. (A lesson Mr. Rather is now learning.)

Many, many Vietnam Vets see John Kerry not as a man driven by principles, but as an amoral, manipulative opportunist, who sought to advance his own career on the reputation of his former comrades-in-arms. Mr. Kerry has brought their animus largely on himself, with his astoundingly brazen rewriting of his own and for the Swift Boat Veterans their past. (Note how his public "band of brothers" never, ever has publicly included those who he led within the VVAW!)

If you read Doug Brinkley's Tour of Duty and John O'Neill's Unfit for Command you will get an amazingly clear picture of a talented but exceedingly ambitious and psychologically flawed John Kerry. You will find that his behavior during and after Vietnam and throughout his political career (see Kranish's book) fits that of a narcissist*. This is the behavior the 254 Swift Boat Vets picked up on and found so distasteful 35 years ago.

Please put yourself in the shoes of the 2 million plus veterans whom Mr. Kerry charged with having engaged in grotesque war crimes. Yes, those days were incredibly emotionally charged but Mr. Kerry knew precisely what he was doing: He was using his gifts to perpetrate a huge and totally unnecessary lie. The dislike and disdain that many feel for what John Kerry did is real: It is not political partisanship - it is pure loathing that one feels for hypocrites of whatever persuasion.


It might well be that Republican operatives have in some ways enabled the Swift Boat Veterans program - that, however, does not detract one iota from the fundamental points that the Swift Boat Veterans have raised. As Mr. O'Neill appropriately pointed out, if Mr. Kerry had been running as a Republican the Swift Boat Veterans would have taken money from George Soros! The charges leveled at Mr. Kerry are in large part matters of public record. Other charges require the piecing together of memories and records from 35 years before. Unpleasant as some of those charges are, the reality is that it is not the Swift Boat Veterans who have backtracked on the source of the wound for the first Purple Heart or the "seared in my mind" Christmas Eve in Cambodia, it is Mr. Kerry's office that has tap danced and revised their stories. Facts are stubborn things, as John Adams noted and as John Kerry is learning. Have you thought about why Mr. Kerry steadfastly declines to sign Form 180, while his surrogates call on Mr. Bush to release all his records. Facts are not only stubborn, they tend to be hugely inconvenient.

Given your political perspective as reflected in your recent book reviews, I doubt very much that you will change your mind. I trust, however, that it will help to ensure that your next editorial more fully and fairly considers the opposite viewpoint.

Respectfully,

Bernard J Cullen

*This personality trait was pointed out by a SwiftBoatVet contributor.

From:
http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis1/p21-pe07.html

Diagnostic Criteria

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements ( no visible significant achievement after 20 years in the Senate - yet wants to be President. Apparently worked as a prosecutor for all of 3 years before seeking the Lt. Governorship.)
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love (- Publicly stated his ambitions to be President to navy colleagues and peers at St Paul's 40 years earlier - see Brinkley)
3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions) (The elevator in his Boston Office was modified to allow him to avoid interactions with all other tenants in a 11 Floor office building.)
4. requires excessive admiration - he was nicknamed "Live shot" by his colleagues in the Senate, a group not known for its avoidance of the Press
5. has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations - Runs for Congress as 27 year old with no accomplishments
6. is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends - Marriages to not one but two heiresses; Married rich older woman after dating younger starlets!
7. lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others - Has never acknowledged that his statements to the Senate were gross libels and mischaracterizations of the overwhelming majority of those who served in Vietnam
8. is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
9. shows [b]arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes [/b]- You have to wonder at the wind-surfing. His behavior towards staff members is legendary in Boston, captured in the expression "Do you know who I am?".

* Emphasis and red editorial comments added
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Nomorelies
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 3:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bernard Collen,

Boy howdy. You said a mouthful and I thorougly ravished every last little word in it. Imagine, Kerry a narcissist? Who'd a thunk it. Lordy did you nail his high and mighty a**.

I sure wish you would find a way to forward your letter to Zell Miller. He'd really enjoy hearing from you and I'm sure he would agree since he, like the rest of us, was not so "high-born".
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army72
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bernard, you've captured many people's feeling along with providing incite to someone you know will totally ignore any and all arguments contrary to his own. That would undermine the power trip he plays on his students and his own self-importance would be questioned. He is not use to having his opinions questioned. They are given out to his students as absolute truths.

Still, it is composed very nicely and I am very happy you responded. You should send a similar letter to Bill O'Reilly. Maybe he'll finally find out that the erosion in his show's numbers is due to his attacks on the very people that make this country great. They used to be the ones that supported him.
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Dimsdale
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 4:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
It does take a willing suspension of disbelief to conclude there was no coordination between Karl Rove and his old Texas buddies bankrolling the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.


Considering the willing suspension of journalistic standards of objectivity from the likes of O"Rourke, Rather, the NYTimes etc., etc., anything this liberal shill says is subject to scrutiny and howls of derisive laughter.

I guess we should just overlook, er, "suspend our disbelief" about the MILLIONS that Soros and other self described "anyone but Bush" types have given to organizations like moveon.org.

Are all the streets in Democratland labeled "ONE WAY?"
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