Democrats taking a chance on ``Fortunate Son'' criticism of Bush Guard rec

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/09/09/politics1729EDT0739.DTL

Seizing on 30-year-old memos and memories, Sen. John Kerry's operatives are painting an unflattering portrait of President Bush as the "fortunate son" who used family connections to dodge the Vietnam War and then lied about it.

But even some sympathetic Democrats say voters won't be easily swayed, and they fear the controversy will deflect attention from Bush's biggest vulnerabilities: the Iraq war and the economy.

The challenge for Kerry is to talk about issues that matter to voters today -- health care, education, jobs and the war -- while his allies at the Democratic National Committee do the dirty work. The DNC's goal: convince voters that Bush string-pulling in the Texas Air National Guard is part of a pattern of elitism, lies and lack of credibility that stretches to the White House.

"Two things: One, he didn't tell the truth and that's not going to go away," said Howard Wolfson, a strategist dispatched to the DNC by Kerry's campaign to go negative on Bush. "Second, it begins to paint a picture of a very fortunate son who uses connections and pulls strings for special favors. That is a theme running through the man's life."

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Excellent Howard Wolfson quote

"Two things: One, he didn't tell the truth and that's not going to go away," said Howard Wolfson. "Second, it begins to paint a picture of a very fortunate son who uses connections and pulls strings for special favors. That is a theme running through the man's life."


This encapsulates the Bush fraud neatly. Bush lied to avoid going to Vietname, Bush lied in 2003 to have war, and Bush lies now. Meantime, Midland Texas men died in Vietnam and Americans continue to die in Iraq.

[Born Free]

16. Democrats must keep the pressure on

There will be a lot of corporate controlled media that try to discourage the democrats from fighting back, but democrats must not give up. America needs to see the bush coward for what he is.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

30. Exactly!!!

[Carolab]

2. THREE

He's UNFIT for command.

[expatriot]

3. WTF? What's there not to be "swayed" about.

It's there in black and white for gawd's sake. Interviews, confessions, UNforged documents.

What kind of hypnosis does Bush have on some of these people?

[Demonaut]

4. "Fortunate Son" by James Hatfield ......this book should be back

in print

[Bozita]

6. It is in print ... and available --- link

Take a look.

http://www.softskull.com/detailedbook.php?isbn=1-887128-84-0

[Dr Fate]

5. I'm happy. It will not hurt Kerry or help Bush.

I dont care what people say in polls-folks respond to negative ads-in the favor of the attacker. The good part is our charges are TRUE!

Kerry should continue to uncover the truth about Bush.

Most people just expect attacks as part of politics as usual, then they move on w/ the winner of the campaign...

No moderate types ever held Clinton's campaign attacks on the GOP against him- or vice versa- and they did not judge Bush Jr's 2000 attacks against him either.

[therealist]

7. Not clear that they're true

Unfortunately these documents may be forged:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/Vote2004/bush_documents_040909-1.html

[Dr Fate]

8. Bush needs to have a press conference and set the record straight.

Dig this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9967-200...

CBS News released a statement yesterday standing by its reporting, saying that each of the documents "was thoroughly vetted by independent experts and we are convinced of their authenticity." The statement added that CBS reporters had verified the documents by talking to unidentified individuals who saw them "at the time they were written."

< snip >

A senior CBS official, who asked not to be named because CBS managers did not want to go beyond their official statement, named one of the network's sources as retired Maj. Gen. Bobby W. Hodges, the immediate superior of the documents' alleged author, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian. He said that a CBS reporter read the documents to Hodges over the phone, and that Hodges replied that "these are the things that Killian had expressed to me at the time."

"These documents represent what Killian not only was putting in memoranda, but was telling other people," the CBS News official said. "Journalistically, we've gone several extra miles."

The official said the network regarded Hodges's comments as "the trump card" on the question of authenticity, as he is a Republican who acknowledged that he did not want to hurt Bush. Hodges, who declined to grant an on-camera interview to CBS, did not respond to messages left on his home answering machine in Texas.

[w13rd0]

9. Is Bush a spoiled...

...little fraud of a man who has, throughout his life, used his connections to avoid responsibility and curry favor? He's established a pattern of behavior throughout his life. Or do you dispute that?

[GoBlue]

15. I smell Karl Rove

eom

[Piperay]

18. CBS checked

them out first and wouldn't be stupid enough to put on something that was forged.

[saracat]

19. This is disruptive to a positive atmosphere of support.

I question why anyone would want to impugn the only halfway credible news agency we have as one of their first posts. The documents uncovered in this investigation supports a point of view held by most of us opposed to Bush. Attempting to create a divisive atmosphere is suspect!

[0007]

21. I'm afraid they are true. The repukes are in a world of hurt.

Ben Barnes sez it all and sets the tone for the show this time around. Even the typewriter theory isn't going convince anyone except the die hearts that think junior is God!

[yardwork]

25. These documents aren't the point!

The point is that the news media is finally - at long last - starting to report the many, many discrepancies between Bush's service and Bush's stories about his service.

The pertinent questions are:

Why did Bush fail to show up for service in the Alabama National Guard?

Why wasn't Bush court-martialed for failing to meet his obligation?

Why did Bush fail to show up for flight physicals?

Why wasn't Bush court-martialed for failing to get the physicals?

Why was Bush allowed to stop flying as a result of missed physicals?

Where are Bush's complete records for his time in the National Guard?

What was Bush doing during 1972 and 1973 when his pay records show he wasn't fulfilling his National Guard obligation?

Why was Bush allowed to go AWOL during much of 1972 and again in 1973?

Can we trust somebody who won't tell the truth about his own service?

Is Bush fit to be Commander in Chief?

[Monkey Lord]

10. But the problem is, swing voters don't care.

Otherwise, they wouldn't still be swing voters. The subject of Bush's guard service has been persued since before the LAST election, and this "revelation" doesn't change anything.

"Extra Extra! Bush was the rich kid of a senator who avoided deployment to Vietnam by getting his daddy to pull political string!"

OMG! No way!

:/

Ok, so now what?

The real issues are the economy, and security. If Kerry wants to beat Bush decisively, he's GOT to start showing that he is going to be a strong and decisive leader. So far, whether or not he's done this is questionable... But guess what? questionable isn't cutting it. If the dems think he's a strong leader, that's great. But that isn't going to amount to jack come election time if the indies and moderates don't.

Kerry has been given every opportunity to run away with this election, given the state of the economy, and the war in Iraq. So why the f*&^ isn't he?! It seems to me that his campaign is focusing TOO much preaching to the "Anti-Bush" crowd... and to a point, that's fine. Never hurts to solidfy your base.

But the swing voters we're fighting over aren't Bush haters... or by their very nature, they wouldn't be swing voters, now would they? He MUST try harder to form a "Pro-Kerry" crowd, if you see what i mean.

[Dr Fate]

11. Wrong- that story never got legs in 2000.

I never heard any real details about until after the election was over...Gore NEVER brought that up. It was in one single Boston Globe article.

The details of this need to contimue to come out- it is true, and it neutralizes the not-so-true SBV lies.

DEMS need to keep hitting Bush with the AWOL stick.

Americans respond to attacks-in the favor of the attacker. I'm glad some DEMS are learning that.

[Monkey Lord]

12. Well, I must respectfully disagree

Then where were you? :P I heard it before, I've heard it after, and ever since. It's not new news. The reason Bush's attack ads are working is because much of Kerry's vietnam service is unknown to the public. So they've taken the initiative, and everytime they make a claim, it's new news. hence the word "news".

I'm afraid that continuing to hit Bush with the AWOL stick will make the Kerry campaign look like it's running out of issues to talk about... and that's dangerous, because there's PLENTY of talking points to go after. WTF keep going after this one? The public didn't respond to it before, and it probably isn't this time around either, which is my point.

[Dr Fate]

13. Gore never accused Bush- but it was in one Boston Globe article...

And that is about it. It may have been on TV once or twice, but not that I ever saw. I certainly never saw any investigations or interviews like I did w/ the Swiftboat stuff.

I could be wrong, but I bet you would be hard pressed to find too many 2000 mainstream media appearances of this story...

I did start to hear about it a lot after the election though.

Most non-political people I was talking to even a couple of years ago had not heard of it.

[Monkey Lord]

14. Man... Not that I'm doubting your word....

but it WAS all over the media, though if I remember correctly, it was very late in the race.... like days before the election. And it's been mentioned every other week SOMEWHERE ever since.

I just think it's the wrong issue to be chasing this late in the game.

[robbedvoter]

29. You confuse it with W's DUI - THAT was all over - and ONLY W's version

as well ("Gore must've dug it"). It was credited with shaving some points in the actual election, in spite of the fact that after 2 days it misteriously disappeared from the media (hints of what was to come)
I had never heard of any AWOL problems of any kind in 2000 not living in Boston.

[Judi Lynn]

17. The two reporters working on it for the Boston Globe were the only ones

I was aware of, as well. They worked with Martin Heldt, who obtained a lot of that information from the FOIA, right?

I was reading the CNN's Presidential Campaign 2000 message board then, only posting rarely, as it was extremely heated, and fast moving, and Martin Heldt posted often there. He was intensely disappointed that the story was being ignored.

There's no doubt you're right.

[KDLarsen]

24. Read about it in "Bush's Brain" on KKKarl Rove

.. and the funny thing was, back then Ben Barnes actually said that he know nothing about how *bush got into the TANG. I wonder what it would have done to *bush's campaign if Ben Barnes had had the guts back then to say "Yes, I helped *bush get into the TANG and thus sent a young man, who had the right to join TANG, to Vietnam to get shot at and probably killed".

[Judi Lynn]

31. He did say when he was on "60 Minutes" that it had weighed heavily

on his conscience.

He said that it brought the whole thing to a head for him once he understood that _Bush was having his people attacking Kerry, who had volunteered to go into harm's way, while he had done everything possible to remain completely insulated from risk.

[saracat]

20. Hmmm It is new news.

Because we have new evidence.Even the WH knows that.And now we have his flight logs.Not much of a pilot was he?

[Career Prole]

23. No offense, but this *is* an issue, and a rather big one at that.

If these allegations are true then bush has obtained an honorable discharge fraudulently, and as a veteran that offends the hell out of me. I want it carried out to its conclusion and will be sorely pissed if it isn't this time.
Kerry is doing a good job talking about the other issues and ignoring this one.

[Wright Patman]

22. It's worse than you portray

or maybe it only seems that way because I am in Texas.

The swing voters are not only not Bush haters; they are Kerry and "lib'rul" haters. They especially hate all 'Massah-two-sits' lib'ruls. Kerry is just a tall Dukakis to them.

I don't see much way to get most of the swing voters to go for Kerry. The best I can hope for is that they just don't vote or vote for a fringe party.

[Catfight]

26. I love this Offensive stuff from the DNC! The party of wimps seems

to be the RNC that defers from serving and goes AWOL when partying is involved! Bush's new slogan, "Bring on the hookers!"

[friesianrider]

27. You know the author of that book "committed suicide", right?

If I'm not mistaken, somewhere in WV. Had a new baby on the way, friends say he was happier than ever. Supposedly he was supposed to meet an "insider" for his next Bush book and he was found a few days later with his his wrists slit in the bathtub of his hotel room. There were *countless* inconsistencies with the murder scene which I won't go into, but let's just say it was very fishy...

[MrBenchley]

28. Very funny....

The Republicans flat out LIED about Kerry's heroism...and it did backfire on them...but you didn't see a single word of warning from the media that it might.

Now the Democrats are telling the truth about pResident Toot, and the sudden concern for backfire is touching, is it not?