You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Home Front: Politix
Kerry fires back on his Vietnam war record
2004-08-20
Which he still won't release...EFL:
Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry struck back yesterday against a group of critics who have been impugning his Vietnam War record for the last two weeks, branding them as liars and accusing them of acting as ''a front for the Bush campaign" to do the president's ''dirty work." Kerry, appearing stern as he drew repeated applause in a speech before a firefighters' union in Boston, weaved vivid descriptions of his four months as a Navy swift boat commander -- including ''the shrapnel in my leg," which he rarely mentions -- with invective about ''the lies about my record" from the critics, Vietnam veterans who have named themselves Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Wonder if that shrapnel is a grain of rice? Well, we can just look at the record, oops, we can't...
''Here's what you really need to know about them: They're funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas; they're a front for the Bush campaign," said Kerry, citing two $100,000 donations by Houston donor Bob J. Perry. ''And the fact that the president won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything that you need to know -- he wants them to do his dirty work. Over the past week, some fellow veterans and campaign advisers had been urging Kerry to respond forcefully. When he did so yesterday, however, he did not offer a point-by-point rebuttal of the group's allegations.
He can't..
Instead, he condemned them categorically and tried to draw Bush into the skirmish. ''Thirty years ago, official Navy reports which I wrote and every person there on my boat, but not the one next to me documented my service in Vietnam and awarded me the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. Thirty years ago, this was the story I made up plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam," Kerry said, drawing one of several standing ovations from thousands of firefighters in their gold and black ''Kerry-Edwards" T-shirts at the Hynes Convention Center yesterday.
"Shrapnel in the leg" seems to be the new meme. Funny no one else remembers it.
Posted by:Steve

#21  Must be that short leg between the other two that contains Momma T's shrapnel.
Posted by: Capt America   2004-08-20 9:58:12 PM  

#20  he's just Hillary with a real penis

classic.
Posted by: B   2004-08-20 8:20:24 PM  

#19  Dave, as much as I hate to admit it, I can't argue with a bit of what you fear will happen...YIKES!
If this were a perfect world, you should have that copied and printed on the front page of every newspaper in this country because Americans need to be aware that is what we're up against in this election!
Posted by: GreatestJeneration   2004-08-20 7:50:16 PM  

#18  Uhh, Jen... don't you think I know that??????

I'm not talking about what will happen, Jen; I'm talking about what the Clintons' conniving. Hillary wants to be President (I assume). She will want the best chance of winning. She will calculate in that evil, scheming little brain of hers that she will have the best chance of getting in the White House the quickest if Kerry is defeated. Therefore, she will scheme to get him defeated.

As to what will actually happen if Kerry wins this fall, here's a sampling of possibilities:

1) Israel has an "oh-shit!" epiphany and realizes they're on their own now, that America cannot be counted on to do anything about Iran's incipient nuclear threat. Before the last Florida ballots are even counted in the U.S. election, Iran gets reduced to a pool of radioactive slag by an Israeli pre-emptive nuclear strike.

2) China will (rightly) peg Kerry as a feckless wimp, and decide that 2005's gonna be showtime for Taiwan.

3) Li'l Kim the NorK similarly writes Kerry off as a loser, and promptly nukes Seoul.

4) Jihadis the world over are ecstatic to find that Osama bin Laden's "Mogadishu Principle" has been vindicated: bleed the Americans enough, and they will turn tail and run. (It might take an election to do the trick, though.)

I'm working on a more comprehensive list of the earthly delights that await us if we are stupid enough to elect John Kerry as our president; but these will suffice for now.
Posted by: Dave D.   2004-08-20 7:14:17 PM  

#17  Dave, if sKeery gets elected [shudder]--which I SERIOUSLY doubt is going to happen--
we may not be alive to vote for President in 2008, Dimocrat or Republican, because Kerry won't do squat to keep America from being attacked and threatens to do alot that will encourage our enemies to do so!
Posted by: GreatestJeneration   2004-08-20 6:54:43 PM  

#16  "If Kerry wins then Hillary will have almost no chance against a incumbent Kerry Presidency while if Kerry looses Hillary will have a much better chance against a non-incumbant canidate...."

I've been thinking along those lines, too: if the Clintons are in a position to prevent a Kerry victory, they'll do it.

If Kerry wins this election and turns out to be an effective, popular president (yeah, yeah, I know...) then Hillary won't have her shot at the White House until 2012. I just can't see her being willing to wait that long.

But I think it is far more likely that Kerry, if elected this fall, will fuck things up so spectacularly that it will be at least another generation-- maybe even a half-century-- before any Democrat gets into the White House again. (Keep in mind here that we're talking about someone so fickle that Jimmy Carter will seem like Rambo in comparison.)

Hillary's best option for 2008 is for Bush to win re-election and continue doing the heavy lifting on the War on Terror (perhaps even taking care of both Iran and the NorKs in the next 4 years, though I doubt it), and then run against whoever the Republicans put up. Right now there's no telling who that might be, and I don't see any obvious contenders.

No, there's nothing wrong with your tinfoil hat. Nothing at all.
Posted by: Dave D.   2004-08-20 6:42:17 PM  

#15  CF, you DO need to have your tin foil hat resized!
No matter what happens to sKeery, Hillary ain't never gonna be President!
She is hated--by me, for one, but lots of other people.
I think sKerry is the front man for the Dims, Machievellian Clintonian schemes or no, and if he goes down--which I think he will(YEA!), he should take the rest of the ship down with him because he's just Hillary with a real penis.
The Dimocrats are all alike now: Socialists, Marxists, Lefties, Communists in the guise of "Progressives" and they are the party of bankrupt and un-America policies and ideology.
And my tin foil fedora fits just fine, thanks!
Big Ed, LOVE the pic!
Posted by: GreatestJeneration   2004-08-20 6:30:27 PM  

#14  Big Ed - You rock!
Posted by: .com   2004-08-20 6:21:42 PM  

#13  

Here's another one. . .

Yeah! Jail Sandy (Ham-)Burglar
Posted by: BigEd   2004-08-20 6:16:35 PM  

#12  That's not shrapnel in your leg John,
It's the "Lo Jac" tracking device Evita had inserted up your ass...
Posted by: Capsu78   2004-08-20 5:55:24 PM  

#11  I can't help but wonder if all this fuss being kicked up by Kerry's supporters are, actually, being done by Clinton's supporters in order to bolster Hillary's chance in '08 by insuring that
*everyone* reads the book and/or sees the ad and sinks Kerry's chances.

If Kerry wins then Hillary will have almost no chance against a incumbent Kerry Presidency while if Kerry looses Hillary will have a much better chance against a non-incumbant canidate....

Damn, I got to get my tin-hat resized....
Posted by: CrazyFool   2004-08-20 4:41:43 PM  

#10  I've looked everywhere for the original / high rez version - no joy.

Ed - If you find it, and I know you go slumming just like me (heh), PLEASE post it so I can snarf it up, lol!
Posted by: .com   2004-08-20 4:24:21 PM  

#9  .com : You RASCAL!
Posted by: BigEd   2004-08-20 4:21:20 PM  

#8  Best. Sign. Ever.
Posted by: Chris W.   2004-08-20 4:14:33 PM  

#7  
Posted by: .com   2004-08-20 4:12:08 PM  

#6  If Clintoon could have figured out a way to do combat duty in Vietnam with only a few scratches for which he got Purple Hearts and with the promise that he'd get to come home after 4 months, he would have.
He's probably sick he didn't work the system the way Kerry did.
He just didn't have the influential friends sKeery does until he got to the big time White House.
Posted by: GreatestJeneration   2004-08-20 4:08:02 PM  

#5  "This even makes Clinton look humble."

Couple years ago I would've said such a thing is physically impossible.

But now, what you wrote seems, if anything, an understatement.
Posted by: Dave D.   2004-08-20 3:54:34 PM  

#4  I've read more about this today than I ever wanted to. I should have saved time and just stuck with my gut reaction when I read that Kerry was doing re-enactments for his home movie camera in Vietnam (did you know he served in Vietnam?). It's clear that he was more interested in self-serving than in serving his country. I fear any candidate that is that calculating and that self-serving. This even makes Clinton look humble.
Posted by: Tom   2004-08-20 3:50:03 PM  

#3  Could have been a fragment from one of his own grenades that he shot a little too close for comfort. (The "self-inflicted wound" that Michelle Malkin was trying to explain last night to MSNBC's foaming nutjob Chris Matthews.
Posted by: eLarson   2004-08-20 3:40:38 PM  

#2  What's that sucking sound I hear?

Oh, the Boston Probe. Nevermind.
Posted by: .com   2004-08-20 3:35:04 PM  

#1  This amazing piece is brought to you by:

By Patrick Healy, [Boston] Globe Staff August 20, 2004

His email is at the end of the artice.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2004-08-20 3:32:15 PM  

00:00