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Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Eighth and ninth SwiftVets ads feature 90 heroes, including Medal of Honor-winning ex-POW
Mike Krempasky at Redstate.org has a scoop — the scripts for the about-to-be-released eighth and ninth SwiftVets ads.
The first of these two new ads apparently will feature ninety Swiftees and ex-POWs gathered en masse to demonstrate their conviction that Sen. Kerry is unfit to be commander in chief. The second includes ex-POW and Congressional Medal of Honor winner Bud Day, one of America's most highly decorated pilots. Mike reports that these spots will appear, among other places, on "Monday Night Football," and will be previewed tonight by Brit Hume on Fox.
Sen. Kerry will doubtless continue to try to brush these ads off as the work of right-wing cranks, and some folks will doubtless continue to buy into that defense. But ninety highly decorated veterans, men who look like your father or grandfather or husband or brother — enough men to field ten baseball teams; seven and a half dozen heroes — all standing tall and defiant and very disapproving. I'd love to see Sen. Kerry try to stare them down in person.
Update (Wed Oct 13 @ 11:10pm): All of the SwiftVets' ads, including the new ones, can be viewed here. Watch them both. Look at their clothes — ranging from bankers' conservative suits to laborers' Sunday best. Look at their faces — and think about how glad you'd be to see any of them, as a young man, sharing your foxhole.
Look at Bud Day, in his flight jacket and his Medal of Honor, and listen to him deliver, in measured, deadly serious tones, this simple, devastating question:
"How can you expect our sons and daughters to follow you, when you condemned their fathers and grandfathers?"
I'd pay a lot of money for a video of John Kerry's face as he watched these ads for the first time.
Update (Thu Oct 14 @ 1:15am): Wow. WaPo has a page A4 article about the new ads in Thursday's edition that's actually pretty fair. It even quotes Bud Day's line.
Posted by Beldar at 03:16 PM in Politics (2006 & earlier), SwiftVets | Permalink
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Comments
(1) Jim in Chicago made the following comment | Oct 13, 2004 3:31:49 PM | Permalink
But, but, but, Andrew Sullivan calls them smear-artists.
Whom do I believe, Sully or the highly-decorated Vets?
Decisions, decisions.
(2) Cap'n DOC made the following comment | Oct 13, 2004 5:27:05 PM | Permalink
I don't know Andrew Sullivan. I'll throw my hat in with my fellow Navy Vets, even if I wasn't with the BrownWaterNavy in Vietnam.
(3) Porcell made the following comment | Oct 13, 2004 6:16:34 PM | Permalink
The Swiftees are paying for $14 million worth of ads on Monday Night Football, They are playing hardball with tough and illuminating information. Should Bush win the election, these guys ought to be invited to the innaugural ball. I've contributed a paltry $100 but am raising it another $400, which isn't chopped liver for a retired schoolteacher.
(4) Porcell made the following comment | Oct 13, 2004 6:28:54 PM | Permalink
Jim,
The Swiftees are a bunch of Vietnam Navy Coastal Division 11 vets, most of whom knew Kerry and have serious concern about his character based on his combat record in Vietnam and his later slandering of the mostly good Vietnam warriors.
If your question is serious, I'd suggest that you check their website at:
http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/index.php
Or, better still, read *Unfit for Command* by John O'Neil, which is a carefully written and documented volume.
As to Sullivan, he is blowing smoke.
(5) MaDr made the following comment | Oct 13, 2004 7:46:53 PM | Permalink
Monday Night Football! Guess they didn't get the Halperin memo. BTW - Halperin is a coward. He has a regular Monday night spot with my local talk radio host. He didn't show up this last Monday and was not returning phone calls from the host. Laura Ingraham really had me going Monday morning. She opened by reporting that Terry_M was out as DNC chairman. He was being replaced by Halperin. She didn't reveal the gag until after a break. I believed it.
My biggest disappoint has been that Stolen Honor was not going to be shown in my area (not Sinclair). I got new life tonight when I heard that other stations have begun inquiring about showing the documentary. I'm starting my email and letter campaign with my local CBS affliate and moving from there. My local CBS affliate has responded to all 4 of my emails (with different form letters), so I assume they are somewhat distressed. What a great way to balance Rather, than to show Stolen Honor or at least clips from it!
I'm also a contributor to the SwiftVets - I'm going back again (along with twisting arms of friends and family to contribute, again). I didn't serve in Viet Nam, but I recall vividly the disgraceful way the returning vets were treated. It's long overdue that the record is finally set straight, and this generation of men who honorably served their nation are recognized as such.
(6) conelrad made the following comment | Oct 13, 2004 8:09:20 PM | Permalink
Porcell: these guys ought to be invited to the innaugural ball.
----
Kerry losing will be the parade they never had.
(7) YouGottaBeKidding made the following comment | Oct 13, 2004 10:11:47 PM | Permalink
The new ads are up on the Swiftvets site. Both are great, but the second one ("Why?") is the one that really "speaks" to me.
The ad agency that has done all these ads is fantastic. Short, sweet, and to the point.
(8) MaDr made the following comment | Oct 13, 2004 10:49:55 PM | Permalink
conelrad
Excellent idea for the inaugural ball. How about if Bush announces a National Day of reconciliation with all the Viet Nam vets for that day and invite them all to parade through DC. I'd go. I think it'd be a healing gesture to the nation and might even be a start to rehabilitating Kerry. After he loses the election, he really should apologize to his fellow vets, and at the proposed parade would be an excellent time. Okay, I guess Kerry isn't a big enough man to do what's best for his country, but I think they'd go a long way.
(9) Chu Lai Ace made the following comment | Oct 14, 2004 2:43:48 AM | Permalink
Sinclair is taking a lot of heat about the show, but after watching Frontline on PBS Tuesday night, I think he can argue that the Kerry folks have already had their side heard. Two hours of treating Bush like a "pinada" while holding Kerry up as America's destiny was absolutely amazing. They even managed to get in an interview with Sandusky!
(10) Calliope made the following comment | Oct 14, 2004 6:17:19 AM | Permalink
I don't know where these ads are playing. They don't need to show them down here in Texas.
Wherever that is though, and I assume it is swing states, it must be devastating. I will be amazed if Kerry can win with this sort of political hardball being played.
A guy that said and did these things being elected President of the United States? I don't think so. Maybe in Germany. Not here.
(11) Mikey made the following comment | Oct 14, 2004 6:27:49 AM | Permalink
The torpedoes keep slamming home.
(12) Thomas J. Jackson made the following comment | Oct 14, 2004 11:01:21 PM | Permalink
Who are we to believe, Kerry or 90 brave fighting men?
(13) Sharpshooter made the following comment | Oct 15, 2004 11:16:09 PM | Permalink
"I'd pay a lot of money for a video of John Kerry's face as he watched these ads for the first time."
As someone completely immersed in pathological denial, he wouldn't even flinch.
(14) Sharpshooter made the following comment | Oct 15, 2004 11:19:44 PM | Permalink
"A guy that said and did these things being elected President of the United States? I don't think so. Maybe in Germany. Not here."
Don't bet on it. Right now it's a toss-up.
In a democracy, the people have only themselves (or their neighbors) to blame. As P.J. O'Rourke put it at the close of _Parliament of Whores_, "What we have to realize is that, in a democracy, the whores are _US_!".
(15) Lou made the following comment | Oct 17, 2004 1:12:39 PM | Permalink
"We risked everything for our country, and Kerry slapped us in the face. Now, just look at what a big man he is, how much respect he gets-- it’s galling!
It isn’t easy for men like us to become whiners and complainers. We don’t usually resent someone else’s success. It tears us up inside. But extreme times call for extreme measures-- and we must keep fighting."
(16) Sam made the following comment | Oct 18, 2004 4:11:14 PM | Permalink
The 4 or 5 "9/11 Widows for Kerry" get more publicity than the 250 plus SwiftVets. Guess who AP and the rest of the MSM is rooting for?
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