Kerry on torture- his best speech ever

[malaise]

Go JK.

add

[Muttocracy]

1. indeed. nt

[malaise]

8. Where was this John Kerry four years ago?

This is fabulous.

[GoesTo11]

9. You took the words right out of my mouth

[malaise]

13. LOL

:D

[NewYorkerfromMass]

22. He was there

same John kerry as tonight- same as he ever was. Nobody bothered to listen.

[politicasista]

26. Exactly. n/t

[pklaz96]

28. He was there

Have we all forgotten???? He won the last election!!!!! He was our President!!!! It was stolen by the Republicans. He has given other great speeches. Tonight was one of his best. Another of our great heroes.

[SammyWinstonJack]

31. !

:thumbsup:

[karynnj]

29. Hidden by the media

This is the same Kerry who stunned the country with his brilliant eloquent testimony to the Senate at 27 years old, who risked his career to stand against the Contras and BCCI in the two best investigations the Senate did in the last few decades.

As the Presidential candidate his role had to be different than this -he couldn't hit this hard, especially as the country would have rejected anyone hitting Bush that hard in 2004. As it was his comments on the unguarded ammo dumps were as strong as anything said by a competitor fighting an incumbent President.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

33. Great points

Kerry had a tough road to travel in '04.

[valerief]

2. Spoken from a TRUE war hero. nt

[malaise]

3. Senator McCain versus Candidate McCain

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Go John Kerry!

[colorado thinker]

4. Who knew it would be Kerry who smacked down

McCain? Why didn't he do this kind of thing when HE ran for President?????????????

[malaise]

5. He should have done some of this then

Wow!

[seabeyond]

14. he did it FOR obama. he did it FOR webb, cleland and others. NO ONE did it for him

no dem, no dem mouthpiece, not hillary..... NO ONE defended kerry. they had not experienced this lie and media consumption ever before. the swiftboat came out in april and lasted an AFTERNOON and media didnt grab hold cause they KNEW it was a lie.

when kerry needed help, when he needed his dems to cover his back, ... they were ALL absent.

why
why
do people ignore the facts

[politicasista]

16. Frustrating isn't it? And the crickets that follow n/t

[seabeyond]

17. you know, we ask how bush followers can buy into bush lies, the limbaughs

yet still, we have the very same on here. it can be timelined out what happen that august and why it happened. with facts. and still people will refuse to absorb cause they want to believe kerry fucked it up

[Breeze54]

21. Not true! n/t

[politicasista]

24. Exactly n/t

[karynnj]

30. I think the reason is fear

If you can blame John Kerry, you don't have to worry that it is a systemic problem and we need to work like crazy to avoid it happening again. Also, Kerry was not helped by the fact that most of the prominent Democrats in the media had a vested interest in Kerry being seen as a failure - they supported someone else in 2008. Kerry was a threat. He had nearly won an election stacked against him, had no real honest baggage, and by 2006 was leading on Iraq. (HRC with help of WJC was horribly positioned on Iraq.)

Kerry won 2004's nomination with no help from the media. Had Kerry had the media support that any of the top three had, he likely could have made a real go of running in 2008.

[Breeze54]

18. That is NOT true at all! ~ 'Leading Democrats make the case for their friend '

Stop it. Just stop.

---------------

Leading Democrats make the case for their friend

Posted 7/29/2004 10:59 PM Updated 7/30/2004 12:30 AM

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-07-29-dems-kerry_x.htm

By Bill Nichols, USA TODAY


BOSTON — Democrats brought the curtain down on their national convention Thursday with a roster of speakers who underlined the theme they have been emphasizing for four days: John Kerry is a war hero who is tough enough to be president of the USA.

Democrats brought the curtain down on their national convention Thursday with a roster of speakers who underlined the theme they have been emphasizing for four days: John Kerry is a war hero who is tough enough to be president of the USA.

From former Georgia senator Max Cleland, whose legs were blown away by a grenade in Vietnam in 1968, to Kerry's own Vietnam-era swift boat comrades, the emphasis was on supporting Kerry's acceptance speech with personal testimonies to the nominee's courage and resilience.

"The Bible tells me that no greater love has a man than to lay down his life for his friends," Cleland said in remarks prepared for delivery. "John Kerry's fellow crewmates ... are living testimony to his leadership, his courage under fire, and his willingness to risk his life for his fellow Americans. "Ladies and gentlemen, there is no greater act of patriotism than that."

Former Special Forces officer Jim Rassmann told delegates how Kerry saved his life in the Mekong Delta in 1969.

Leading Democratic voices on national security and foreign policy took to the podium to argue that Kerry has the judgment and seasoning to use force when necessary but to also wage a worldwide war of ideas against the anti-American nihilism of radical Islamic terrorism. Thursday's rhetoric also seemed to ease some of the Kerry campaign's constraints about directly criticizing the Bush administration.

• "I do not question the motives of this administration. But I profoundly disagree with their judgments," said Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. "Today, we are rightly confident in the example of our power. But we have forgotten the power of our example."

• Retired general Wesley Clark, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nod, sharply criticized GOP rhetoric questioning the ability of Democrats to defend the country after 9/11.

"This soldier has news for you tonight: Anyone who tells you that one political party has a monopoly on the best defense of our nation is committing a fraud," Clark said. "This hall, this Democratic Party are filled with veterans who have served under this flag. ... We've seen brave men and women buried under that flag. That flag is ours! And nobody, nobody will take it away from us."

• Said Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee: "As commander in chief, John Kerry will relentlessly pursue terrorists wherever they operate. But if there is no imminent threat to our nation, John Kerry will never send America's sons and daughters to fight die in unilaterally declared wars."

Before the night's major speeches began, the convention officially nominated North Carolina Sen. John Edwards to be the party's vice presidential candidate. In a pre-designed move, the North Carolina delegation requested that Edwards be nominated by acclimation, without the normal roll call. No dissenting voice was heard.

Democrats wrapped up their convention united in their belief that this year's election is one of the most important in recent memory.

"Tonight the spirit of history is upon all of us," said Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a veteran of the civil rights movement. "And the spirit of history sees a great nation, a proud people cast in shadow, the shadow of a man, a president, who had divided a nation against itself and turned the world away from a friend."

[seabeyond]

23. isn't all that before the swift boating. we are talking about when kerry was swift boated in aug

right. when bush held his convention until into sept (against the laws and no one did anything about it) leaving kerry without the ability to spend money as bush was spending money he got to use BEFORE his convention. and since kerry had already had the convention in the legal time frame he couldn't spend any money in aug... right

it was aug the swift boating became a story

cleland stood up for him and was outraged

donna brazil was less than no help, she helped perpetuate it with her bullshit talk

carvil did the same as brazil

hillary made the same kinda comment she made with obama's accusation of being muslim, not firm

the media went wild

his campaign person said let it go. april swift boat had done the same thing, held a huge press conference and it lasted an afternoon before it was a non story

when they realized within a week the story it was becoming kerry was on. he did NOT get help from the dems. the media always had a swift boat guy up there with kerry validating the story and perpetuating it

and all the while media KNEW it was a lie. repugs KNEW it was a lie. swift boaters KNEW it was a lie. and the fed the masses

blame the ones responsible

[politicasista]

25. "Blame the ones responsible"

:thumbsup:

[Breeze54]

27. maybe but they kept defending him and others joined in....

and i am sure the Campaign mgr told people to be quiet!

Don't blame all the Dems... blame that mgr!

[karynnj]

32. At the convention - where they wanted to be seen

The point is that the top Democrats did NOT blast the purple heart bandaids. The K/E campaign was the one that issued a statement against them. Any top Democrat, other than John Kerry, would have been helpful if he/she were all over TV speaking of how this was wrong and it hurt the troops. Coming from Kerry, it would sound defensive. The silence was damaging to Kerry -suggesting he deserved it. After all, all the respected pundits saw nothing wrong with these bandaids and the libel they supported.

What Kerry needed was a "Kerry". he has been out there nearly every week defending Obama. In 2004, even Kerry's VP was too narcissistic to consider that his job was to have the Presidential nominees back. Well after he was named VP, he proudly said he wouldn't be an attack dog, wasn't, then in 2007 claimed he wanted to be.

[wisteria]

19. Good points. n/t

[colorado thinker]

6. Damn! He's doing great!

[malaise]

7. Barack's uncle is there

How lovely.

[Breeze54]

10. Senator Kerry did fantastic... and he hit all the right points!!

I think he needed to do that, especially about the swiftboaters and McDim's crappy votes!!

He rocked!!

[lynettebro440]

11. Kudos to both Clintons

regained my faith in them that was horribly lost during the primaries.

[malaise]

12. The Clintons were great n/t

[spanone]

15. he's still a hero!!!!

[riverdeep]

20. Favorite line:

When he was talking about how Senator McCain (the maverick) was in stark difference to Candidate McCain (the Bush bootlicker), he said 'before he debates Barrack Obama he could have a debate between himself.'