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Comments: Swift Boat Veterans for Weekend Furloughs

Frankly, who gives a flying fuck about Vietnam? The boomers need to get over themselves. There are more important things happening in the world today. What frightens me the most about Kerry is that he sees everything through the lens of fuzzy Vietnam nostalgia. I'd rather have a President now whose most influential life event is 9/11.

As for the "Republican dirty personal attack politics" .. how do you feel about the GWB National Guard faux "scandal"? If Kerry didn't want to open up his Vietnam record to scrutiny, he shouldn't have made it the centerpiece of his campaign.

It is very obvious now that Kerry has lied about much of his Vietnam experience (Cambodia.) At what point do you stop trusting -- to use your words -- "a known liar?"

And to say that the Swift Boat vets have received sizable sums from allies of President Bush is a Moore-style six-degrees-of-separation attack. Gee, ex-military folks have friends who don't like Kerry, the guy who slandered them! I'LL BE DAMNED!

Posted by drzachary at August 20, 2004 11:18 AM

No one cares about Vietnam, but a political campaign happens to be about telling a story and that happens to be Kerry's. He can't change it and neither can anyone else.

I agree that Kerry shouldn't have made his record an issue if he didn't want it to be scrutinized -- but there is a difference between honest scrutiny and just making shit up. One is valid and one is gutter politics. As for Bush's National Guard record? I don't think it's much of a legitimate issue -- I think people have already made up their minds one way or the other and they don't really care. I also think the media has been a lot fairer towards Bush -- investigating baseless claims before they report on them, giving him the benefit of the doubt, etc.

You say Kerry has lied about "much of his Vietnam experience" and then point to Cambodia as the proof. It is pretty clear now that he was in Cambodia in January and February but that no records indicate that he was there on Christmas Day. That alone, I don't think makes you a liar.

Perhaps Kerry shouldn't have made the rhetorical point about "Christmas" 18 years ago in the Senate. "I was in Cambodia in January and February" when the President was saying no troops were in that country doesn't have the same ring that Christmas does, but the overall point that Kerry was making is valid -- that national leaders have misled the public about the doings of the military and those in the military at the time know it's a load of shit what their civilian superiors are saying at home.

I would advise you to read this article from the NYT today objectively and see if you come to the conclusion that my allegations are Moore-style-six-degrees attacks.

Thanks largely to the reporting of Kevin Drum, I reached a conclusion (opposite to my partisan instincts) that there really isn't anything to the Bush national guard duty. And I think you'd reach the same conclusion from this.

As a parting comment, if you throw enough shit at a wall something will stick. And you will notice that the Swiftees have now basically refused to talk about anything except the Cambodia charge -- which tells you something about all of their other baseless charges.

And how do you explain the fact that more than 1 of the members of this group had previously supported Kerry and giving completely contradictory statements in the past than what they were giving now -- and that now most of them refuse to comment?

This is the worst kind of gutter politics, and it would be nice to just say "who cares about Issue X" if you'd rather not talk about it. But that is not how elections are decided and you can't just take the high road when you feel nauseous about something your side is benefiting from.

Posted by chris at August 20, 2004 03:12 PM

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