McCain Uses Swift Boaters He Once Condemned To Defend Himself
And it stems from this exchange between Bob Schieffer and Wesley Clark on Sunday’s Face The Nation.
Bob Schieffer: How can you say that John McCain is un- untested and untried? General?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Because in the matters of national security policy making, it’s a matter of understanding risk. It’s a matter of gauging your opponents, and it’s a matter of being held accountable. John McCain’s never done any of that in his official positions. I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in Armed Forces as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in Air- in the Navy that he commanded, it wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn’t seen what it’s like when diplomats come in and say, ‘I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to get this point through or not. Do you want to take the risk? What about your reputation? How do we handle it-’…I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.
Here is the video.
Clark did not impugn the service of John McCain, but McCain’s service was impugned during the 2000 race by Bush surrogates.
… Bush surrogates (several later involved in the Kerry swiftboating effort) skillfully turned McCain’s service record against him (thereby deflecting questions about Bush’s own service record.) They planted stories that the torture McCain suffered as a POW had brought about mental instability, including rumors that he had been programmed as a “Manchurian candidate” who “collaborated with the enemy.” No longer could McCain use the fact that he had endured torture as evidence of dedication to serving his country.
…
In the 2000 South Carolina Presidential primary Bush surrogates circulated stories that McCain’s five years as a POW had made him “mentally unstable,” gave him a “loose screw,” that he “committed treason while a POW” and “came home and forgot us.”
And McCain blamed Bush for what was being done to him then.
”You’re putting out stuff that is unbelievable, George, and it’s got to stop,” he said. ”And your ads have got to stop.”
Furthermore, in spite of the fact the McCain condemned the swift boat hits on John Kerry in 2004, calling them “dishonest” and “dishonorable,” one of the swift boaters, Bud Day, was on a McCain conference call to push back against what Clark said.
A reporter on the call asked Day how the current flap over Clark’s comments compared to the Swift Boat flap.
Day said that, well, the charges against Kerry were accurate and the ones against McCain were inaccurate.
“The Swift Boat attacks were simply a revelation of the truth,” Day said.
So, now McCain uses swift boaters to do what he condemned four years ago.
This thread just came up just now so I’ll repost…
McCain has this “Truth Squad” which includes Bud Day. One of the assholes in the Swift Boat for Truth commercials. Bush took credit for the GI Bill which he opposed and thanked several senators Webb, Warner, McCain. Of course, McCain didn’t support or vote for it. I guess that’s what the Repubes think they need to do. Just rattle of bullshit that can be disproved with The Google in about 5 minutes. I guess that is a way. Just hope the voters are too stupid to do any research of their own. This shit makes me wanna puke. It’s like a Bill-O show…
June 30th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
“So, now McCain uses swift boaters to do what he condemned four years ago.”
How exactly is that true? He’s using them to attack his opponent’s service record? What service record?
June 30th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
All the McCain hating “journalists” never report that John was offered an early release from the tortures at the Hanoi Hilton, but refused, prefering to stay with his men. John Kerry was a “poser” demanding a purple heart for every scratch and filming it to emulate JFK. When it comes to judging courage and experience, Obama and Kerry are not worthy to kiss McCains ass.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Who says McCain refused to be released, and if he’s a POW how does he refuse to do anything, and if he could be compelled to make propaganda “confessions” what’s to say he couldn’t be compelled to “refuse” an “early” release?
June 30th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
general Clark is a WUSSY !
June 30th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I think it’s common knowledge that McCain didn’t leave when he had a chance. Which is amazing and shows he is a great person. But, he is a Repubelickan..
June 30th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
i don’t know that i consider what bud day had to say as swiftboating.
just my opinion.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Let’s not forget that this is still America and Gen. Clark is permitted to still share his opinion. Why is it news if Gen. Clark thinks “Getting shot down doesn’t automatically qualify you as Presidential?” Sleeping with the President isn’t a qualification either. Gen. Clark also knows that becoming a General isn’t an automatic qualification to become a politician. Knowing when and when not to speak is fatal to a politicians career. A General can give an order and everyone must shut up. Clark outranks McCain and I think he has the right to evaluate him or share an opinion. Why is this news? It helps McCain look like a victim. Compare this to Hillary’s tears. No apology necessary.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
maybe mccain hired bud day for the campaign with a stipulation that he didn’t get dirty.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Alan, why not talk about how McCain has not paid taxes on his oceanfront home in La Jolla, Ca. I guess it’s been four years now. Would you call that tax evasion or just an oversight?
Yeah, a 4 year oversight .. ha ha
Maybe “Babycakes to the fourth power can get her money out and clear this up.”
Another thing. Do they need seven homes ..?? Man, these sons a bitchs really think they can get away with this kind of shit ..
June 30th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Instapundit owns you:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/021103.php
June 30th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Alan, question: Are the people with no political motives to attack Gen. Clark for his comments merely logically inept, or are they also illiterate?
My pity goes to them.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
You have to question his sanity when it comes to wanting to stay in the hanoi hotel as if he were personaly responsible for the capture of other soldiers. I can see right through this mans bull shit story. It will be a sad day in politics if Mc cain becomes president.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
dazed and confused~ i’m sure that his decision to stay with his fellow soldiers was out of a sense of LOYALTY and COMRADERIE. those virtues should not be belittled. i have so much respect for that man and his ordeal that it almost blinded me into voting for him. i was voting for the man and not his platform.
i can totally understand disagreeing with mccain’s politics, but i really encourage you to reconsider your views on his POW experience. you could always google “vietnam pow camps” for more information on what those men went through.
i have the UTMOST respect for him, ESPECIALLY since he chose not to leave the other men behind in the camp.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Seems that McCain participated in an un-just war, then why do I have to have respect for him.
What did he do? Save us from poor southeast asians? And how did he do that? By dropping Napalm on them….
I’m sorry but his war record does not mean anything.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
This brings up an interesting point. By republican logic, John McCain was in the military so he is automatically qualified to be president.
Well, GW served (?) in the Air Force and we’ve seen what a great job he’s done running the country (into the ground).
June 30th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
C & C staying in a camp with pow s shows no more valor then anything else in war. abd did you know Mc cain was against people going back to hanoi / vietnam to look for pows after he got back to the usa? kinda makes you think what / where his loyalty lies.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:30 am
Dave, was McCain orchestrating the Vietnam War? Whether or not it was just is irrelevant. He served his country and was tortured.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:32 am
i agree with Flap on this point. you can’t penalize the soldiers for the politicians’ decisions.
dazed~ i haven’t heard that rumor before. i’d be interested to hear more about it. do you have a source you can refer me to?
July 1st, 2008 at 12:35 am
just google Mc cain archives, testimonies from people who have knon Mc cain are given saying this and more.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:41 am
searching for mccain archives gives almost 10 million results
July 1st, 2008 at 12:49 am
Oh well C & C nothing ventured nothing gained, the more you read the more educated you will be.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:59 am
i’m very well educated, thanks. after changing the search terms, the only two websites i found were
1. something from digg.com that looked too biased to be reliable
2. something that connected john mccain to the “new world order”. that source didn’t seem very reliable either.
really, if there’s a reliable source that shows what you say is true, i’d like to see it.
July 1st, 2008 at 1:08 am
If you were as educated as clamed then you would know who served in vietnam with Mc cain? that is the only hint i will give you,the testimony is online, Last time I saw it surface was when Mc cain ran for senator in Arizona.
July 1st, 2008 at 1:52 am
i don’t need a potpourri of miscellaneous facts to prove my level of education.
in the interest OF educating myself and others, i always cite my source (as do most others blogging along on LL). it’s about sharing and pursuing knowledge together.
July 1st, 2008 at 2:31 am
These are the SAME people who trashed John McCain in 2000, and John Kerry in 04.
In Saturday’s Wash Post, there was a piece tracing the lies being spread about Obama:
“Around the same time Ted Sampley, a North Carolina man who runs his own Web site, published a similar piece.”
From New York Times Company Feb 14, 2004:
“Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, called the man, Ted Sampley, ”one of the most despicable people I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.”
Mr. Sampley once called Mr. McCain, who was held captive for five years in North Vietnam, ”the Manchurian Candidate,” a reference to a 1962 film in which a Communist-controlled candidate nearly becomes his party’s candidate for president.”
In 2004, I checked out Sampley’s website.
He said, ” If Kerry wins South Carolina, I’m comming after him.”
So I guess he’s an expert on McCain, Kerry, AND Obama?
I think that between these kind of disgracful smear tactics, Walter Reed, and the lack of proper equipment for troops, while no expense is spared for private contractors shows that all this talk of honoring service is just empty rhetoric for we the little people.
After all, this is the party who mocked wounded war veterans with purple band aides at their convention!
July 1st, 2008 at 8:06 am
Your getting warmer old lefty but wrong man, and what I find discraceful is a republican party who always finds a way to give out blank checks to a country who not only dis respects christian religion but has no desire to defend its self as if a FALSE message started this war [Iraqi freedom] to say George bush has egg on his face would be a huge understatement!
100 more years in Iraq? Only if Mc cain is paying for it with his Beer profits or Im just warming up..you havent seen nothing yet.
July 1st, 2008 at 5:06 pm