The Swift Boat Veterans For Truth: Are They Going To Sink John Kerry?

20 Aug, 2004 by John Hawkins

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The New Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad is out and believe it or not, it’s even more devastating than the first one.

Kerry is calling on Bush to condemn the ads, sending out legal threats to stations that play it, filing an FEC complaint, calling on the publisher to withdraw the book, complaining that Republicans gave the group money….everything but actually responding in any sort of substantial way to the myriad of claims these very credible veterans and war heroes who knew John Kerry are making.

It’s becoming very apparent that the reason John Kerry has been unable to refute what they’re saying is because they’re telling the truth. The media has spent a lot of time focusing on the weakest accusation that the Swiftees have made, that John Kerry lied to get his Bronze Star (however, I would note that Larry Thurlow is only one out of four eye witnesses who say John Kerry was not under fire when he came back and pulled Jim Rassman from the water after running away and leaving him behind in the first place).

However, Kerry has already been caught in a lie about going to Cambodia and in my personal opinion, it looks to be almost a certainty that John Kerry gamed the system and lied to acquire his first and third Purple Hearts.

That’s the type of thing that sinks a run at the presidency and as a matter of fact, had these accusations come out before John Kerry was the nominee, he WOULDN’T BE the nominee today. Of course, that’s the biggest thing John Kerry has going for him in this situation — that the Democrats and the mainstream media are stuck with him at this point and so they’ll have to desperately defend him no matter how much truth there is to the charges.

But unfortunately for John Kerry, I don’t think that’s going to be enough. Kerry is not going to be able to ignore or censor the Swift Boat Vets for Truth, smearing them isn’t going to be all that effective not only because they’re vets and war heroes, but because there are JUST SO MANY OF THEM making charges. Do you think that anybody other than partisan liberals (including some of Kerry’s allies in the mainstream media) are going to buy that all of these war heroes and vets who knew John Kerry got together and decided to lie through their teeth all in an effort to smear a guy they fought beside of in combat? If there were a handful of guys involved, sure, you’d have to consider that possibility. But who really believes that one of John Kerry’s crew members, his doctor, every commanding officer he ever had, & large numbers of soldiers who fought by Kerry’s side in other boats along with officers who served with JFK, all are participating in some sort of bizarre conspiracy to sink Kerry’s run at the presidency? Come on, that’s like something out of the “X-Files;” it’s just not possible.

So, unless Kerry can actually respond to the Swiftees actual charges effectively, something he has not even STARTED to do at this point, I think the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, all by themselves, are going to finish him. If Kerry’s telling the truth about his war record — which I don’t think he is — he’d be smart to sign a 180 form so his records can be released and then he’d try to directly refute these charges. Make no mistake about it, this is a make or break issue for the Kerry campaign and it’s looking increasingly likely that it’s going to be break…

*** Update #1***: Just take a look at these Swift Boat Veterans for Truth related polling numbers. They don’t look good for the Kerry campaign…

“”During the week ending Aug. 8, 966,000 people visited the anti-Kerry group’s Web site, 34,000 fewer than those who visited Kerry’s official site, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. The new CBS poll found Kerry winning 37 percent of veterans’ votes to Bush’s 55 percent. (The two were tied at 46 percent after last month’s Democratic National Convention, where Kerry highlighted his service.)”

Also, it looks like Kerry has hired an experienced new spokesman to handle these allegations…(heh, heh, heh).

Hat tip to Hugh Hewitt for those two update links.