Craig Crawford: This Swift Boat Stuff helps Kerry more than Bush

[Tarheelhombre]

[jjmalonejr]

1. Bet Rove wished he'd realized that before he got this shit started!

[NavajoRug]

2. Baloney . . .

If that were true, then Kerry's supporters would be making donations to those Swiftboat guys.

The ad campaign started out great for Kerry, because it was easy to discredit those guys. But this latest ad is devastating, no matter what anyone wants to pretend.

[KittyWampus]

4. Devastating?

man, there are some serious drama queens around here.

[NavajoRug]

9. Go out there and find your average "swing voter" . . .

. . . who has seen this ad, and ask what he or she is thinking right now.

Trust me on this one -- this ad campaign is going to have a terrible impact on the election unless the Kerry campaign can oppose it in a creative fashion without going overboard.

[NWHarkness]

15. The latest ad hasn't even aired yet

Calm down, for crying out loud.

[David Dunham]

20. This latest ad will NOT BE EFFECTIVE. It is just opinions, not facts

The first ad calling Kerry a liar was much more effective.

[Nicholas_J]

27. Latest polls

particularly one only a few hours old on Bloombery show that since all this swift boat stuff has gone down, Kerry has increased his lead among Independents, and Bush has increase his lead aomng Republicans.
Its the INdy's who are the undecided, and the votes we want.

[The Magistrate]

33. Indeed, Sir

Easily two-thirds of un-committed voters view these advertisements with suspicion and skepticism; they will not be moved to vote by them....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[w13rd0]

8. Like Republicans donating to Nader?

And the latest ad is devastating? Oh prey, tell...

[Bandit]

12. What exactly is so devastating about it?

I suspect they have yet to witness devastation? Kerry has truth on his side and he is no wimp that they think all democrats are. They are about to be handed their heads on a platter.

[NavajoRug]

13. Here's what makes it devastating . . .

1. The "main character" in the ad -- with his own voice -- is John Kerry himself.

2. The Kerry campaign can't attack the former POWs who are in this ad without coming out looking bad in the process.

3. Just talk to your average swing voter over the next couple of days, and you'll see what I mean.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. I Think A Nation

I think a nation that has seen


Platoon

Full Metal Jacket

Casualties of War

can fathom that atrocities did occur...

[fujiyama]

21. I think the first ad

is more effective, because all the stuff in the new ad has been aired already. I remember this stuff being on various news shows immediately after Kerry got the nomination. His congressional testimony is nothing new.

Sure it will hurt with the undecided voter, but those that would have been turned off by Kerry would have been turned off already by the first round of ads.

[loathesomeshrub]

The news shows that were talking about this ad were a;ready

talking abolut the fact that Kerry was repeating things that vets had admitted to doing in hearings. He was not accusing the vets himself. But in the ads they made it sound like Kerry was accusing them. So the views of the POWS are invalid, and the SBVs are again shown to be putting out an ad which lies.

[bigtree]

16. The ad is a lie

Kerry was repeating testimony of other veterans, not making those charges himself.

[NavajoRug]

19. Then Kerry needs to come out and say that . . .

I seem to remember him admitting last spring that his testimony was "overboard" or something like that.

And I may be wrong about this, but I thought part of his testimony was that HE HIMSELF had done some of those things.

[bigtree]

32. he says his unit violated the geneva convention

by participating (ordered) in free fire zones that demolished villages.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

26. Based on what evidence?

Does your post reflect your hopes, or fears?

Based on what?

[MidwestTransplant]

3. That's what David Gergen said yesterday

Said it would hurt Kerry near term and help him long term like John McCain (of course for McCain it will be too late but it's not do or die time for Kerry yet).

[dennis4868]

30. ummmm how did it help McCain....

long term? He lost to the asswipe who is now poisening the WH!

[aquart]

35. But McCain is the guy they keep standing next to.

Bush wins by cheating. And lots of Americans know it. McCain lost but kept his integrity in the opinion of the nation. That's winning in the long run.

[dennis4868]

36. in politics....

good guys finnish last!

[H2O Man]

5. I agree

It's a desperate move by desperate republicans, and desperate republicans always suck. How can guys like Karl Rove, the Pilsbury Dough Boy of the White House, and Dick Cheney possibly come up with an ad campaign about military issues that won't back-fire? People wanted Kerry to react really fast to this crap, but he played them really well. And now, in the past 36 hours, he's nailing them hard. It's important to remember that in this fight, Kerry doesn't have to win every minute of every round. He just needs to kick the opposition's ass.

[RoundRockD]

6. Where's the New York Times poll Andrea Mitchell mentioned? n/t

[dennis4868]

11. yeah....

i like to see these polls that the media whores keep referring too....

[lancdem]

7. What exactly did he say?

and what are you watching?

[cindyw]

10. Craig is really hittin the high notes today. not only did he point out

that while there is no evidence to back up the Swift boat claim, there is evidence to say Bush was not there for duty. Also, he pointed out the Florida rally where the GOP was supporting the Swift vets.

[Tarheelhombre]

17. I thought Craig Crawford was a Republican

but now I don't know.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

18. He Ran For Office In Orlando As A Dem And Lost

LOL

[The Magistrate]

34. He Is, Sir

But his reputation for competence is his bread and butter....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Feanorcurufinwe]

22. LOL, I thought John Fund was gonna bust a blood vessel.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

23. He Looks Like Howdy Duty (nt)

[oasis]

24. Crawford insisted that the pay records indicated Bush was absent.

[vickie]

25. I thought Craig Crawford (whom I usually can't stand) was

having a grand ol' time ridiculing the DIm Son's service. I think it caught that sanctimonious little sociapath John Fund, off guard.

[Zen Democrat]

28. The new ad EDITS out Kerry saying the atrocities were TESTIFIED TO

by other soldiers:

http://www.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/JohnKerryTestimony.html

I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.

They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

[tom22]

31. In the end I think this is going

to help Kerry. When any fair minded person actually examines the record of what is being said now, the record of what was said by many of these same people in the past and the documents that were created contemporaenously with the actual events, the claims will be revealed to be nonsense. There are claims of hundreds of swifites and 65 affidavits but when you cut through all the nonsense there were fewer than half a dozen who had any personal knowledge of what Kerry did in Viet Nam. When people like Thurlow are questioned at all closely as Chris Matthews did the other night, there claims amount to little. Thurlow actually said on hardball he Kerry deserved his bronze star. Most of the other claims are easily refuted. The book is going to be examined and its charges are going to fade away. I hope Alan Brinkley does the review for the New York Times.
Kerr's criticism of the war is going to be shown to be pretty fairminded and quite sympathetic to the soldiers who served.
This all will serve to remind us of some of the shabbier moments of Bush's 'service' to Texas. (Why in God's name does a certified pilot refuse a physical when that act is guranteed to get him grounded?) The swifites are partisan, shrill and their claims are pretty easily refuted.

[marlakay]

29. Kerry speaks out of context in the ad

Yes they have his words but they follow him talking about what someone else said not him. If we can blow up the fact that Bush is behind this and that they are lies people won't believe it. Think about it, the same people seeing the ads are going to hear news hopefully going against it. If they don't watch the news then they sure as hell could care less about a political ad to begin with and won't watch it. In the old days when I could care less about it I just turned off all of them for both sides and used to say things like I can't wait until the election is over so all this BS won't be on tv anymore. I bet there are alot of people who say that now.

[DU GrovelBot]

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