On Apr 1, 4:31 am, Ubiquitous <web...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> There seems to be an effort afoot to smear John McCain by likening him
to =
John
> Kerry, the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat who by the way
> served in Vietnam. This is from MSNBC.com's First Read blog:
>
> The comparisons between McCain's '08 bid and Kerry's in
> '04 have been unmistakable: Both men, early on, were their
> party's overwhelming favorites to win the nomination; then
> they encountered trouble and got overshadowed by other
> candidates; and then--almost out of nowhere--they locked up
> the nomination. Now, as McCain today embarks on his "Service
> to America" tour across the country, there's another comparison
> between the two men: the emphasis of their military experience.
. =
.. .
>
> But biography isn't everything: McCain's military
service--includi=
ng
> his five years as a POW in Vietnam--is without a doubt one
> of the central narratives of his life and his political career.
> It is also something that clearly distinguishes him from both
> Obama and [Mrs.] Clinton. But as Bill Kristol writes in today's
> New York Times, you can't win presidential on biography alone.
> "If voters had simply looked at the biographies of the
major-party=
> candidates, they would have chosen George H.W. Bush in 1992,
> Bob Dole in 1996, Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.
Instead,=
> they rejected four veterans who served in wartime (and who also
> had considerable experience in public life) for Bill Clinton and
> George W. Bush, who had lesser r=E9sum=E9s, both civilian and
mili=
tary."
>
> We agree with Kristol: McCain's service in Vietnam is far from
sufficient
> reason to elect him president. But Democratic National Committee
chairman
> Howard Dean went further, issuing a statement disparaging McCain:
>
> While we honor McCain's military service, the fact is Americans
> want a real leader who offers real solutions, not a blatant
> op****tunist who doesn't understand the economy and is promising
> to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years.
>
> ABC's Jake Tapper notes that Dean sang quite a different tune four years
a=
go:
>
> "The real issue is this," Dean said in March 2004, when
> endorsing formal rival Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., "Who would
> you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States
> of America, a group of people who never served a day overseas
> in their life, or a guy who served his country honorably and
> has three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star on the battlefields
> of Vietnam?"
>
> It almost seems uns****ting to call attention to this inconsistency.
After =
all,
> does anyone think Dean, who himself never joined the service, really
belie=
ved
> what he was saying about the im****tance of military experience back
then? =
Then
> again, when he and many other Democrats made this argument on Kerry's
beha=
lf,
> they insulted the voters' intelligence. We think they owe the voters an
> apology.
>
> The description "blatant op****tunist" really did fit Kerry in 2004. When
h=
e
> returned from Vietnam, he slandered his fellow veterans as vicious
murdere=
rs
> and rapists. Decades later, when he thought it would be to his political
> advantage, he tried to hype himself as a hero, and then slandered the
vete=
rans
> who called attention to this inconsistency.
>
> By contrast, so far as we know, McCain is uncomplicatedly a war hero,
and
> being a war hero is certainly a point in his favor. Still, we hope he
will=
not
> follow Kerry's lead and base his whole campaign on his service to the
coun=
try
> 40 years ago. We suspect he knows better. And if John McCain opens his
> convention speech by saluting and saying "re****ting for duty," we'll eat
o=
ur
> hat.
>
> We have the hat to this day. We have the hat.
>
> --
> "You know, education--if you make the most of it, you study hard, you
> do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do
> well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." JFKerry
>Now I've heard everything..either you want a president to have military
exp=
erience
or you don't...And if they don't have it..don't make it an issue!! If
you
are looking for someone who has something in common with our soldiers
McCain is your man..certainly not Hillary and as for Obama..we
wouldn't want
those designer suits of his to get dirty. I voted for Kerry in 2004
and military
service was the furthest thing from my mind when I pulled that lever.
I am voting for McCain..because he will tell you the way it is..not
the way you want it to be!
|
