O'Neill was challenged every second of every day, but it was not Kerry's job to get down in the mud with smear jockeys to debate whether or not he was a hero 40 years ago. That job was for the vets who actually fought with Kerry, and they did a good job. Maybe they could have done better but they tried, against the Bushie echo chamber and non-stop lies from rightwing talk radio, internet sites and a 10 million dollar TV ad campaign. MoveON also took on the smearvets, but a bit too late. Then there was Sinclair broadcasting that totally dishonest smearvet documentary.
Oh yeah, and McCain called is dishonest and dishonorable, but that didn't stop the damage either. Why? Becauser the Bushie GOP had no conscience and/or wanted to believe the lies. All 50 million of them.
I spoke to Laurence O'Donnell (NBC, West Wing producer) about this. Laurence actually shouted "LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!" at O'Neill on Hardball or one of those shows. I commended him, but he groaned and said he wished there would have been a better way to counter the wave of lies. I asked him what he would have done differently. How do you stop such a smear campaign that has such support from the GOP? He shook his head and admitted he had no idea, but the media now knows they were suckered and won't be again.
There was no correct way of dealing with it, pal. If Kerry had taken on anyone, it should have been Bush himself, but Bush would have just denied having anything to do with it.
But be assured, that smear campaign can never be used again. It was a one-time BS bomb. |
