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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (615610)	9/1/2004 8:55:50 AM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

The Swift Boat Vets Score a Direct Hit. Kerry's sampan campaign is sinking. He's getting ready to throw in his sabot. Maybe that will sabotage his last remaining hope for victory. KERRY IS IN CRISIS: Roger L. Simon is right, a shake up by the Kerry camp at this point in the race is tantamount to an admission of crisis. Mickey Kaus is right, too: Joe Lockhart ain't gonna come riding in and save the day. Meanwhile Charlie Cook decided it was time to walk back his rather bold prediction from three weeks ago that this was Kerry's race to lose: "It really is pretty amazing how fast the conventional wisdom can change." You don't say? Maybe it shouldn't have been conventional wisdom in the first place. Honestly, I still don't understand how or why Cook and Sabato decided to go out on a limb like that before the GOP convention. It was like two respected Vegas bookies deciding to change the odds of a game at halftime because one team was up a point or two. It just never made sense. For the record, I'm not convinced the movement to Bush is all the work of the Swiftees, though they've certain played a part. But even if it is, it's not like the damage they've inflicted on Kerry should come as a big surprise to anyone who follows politics closely. The Swiftees held a press conference way back in early May - even if it did get close to zero attention from the mainstream press. Here's what I wrote about the Swiftees at the time: As far as politically damaging attacks go, this (the Swift Boat Veterans) should rank right up there among the most potent ones imaginable. It would certainly be a political disaster of thermonuclear proportions if all of George W. Bush's former commanding officers in the National Guard condemned his fitness to be CIC. But I suspect this story won't get very much play (except in the blogosphere) and whatever attention it does generate in the mainstream press that might potentially influence swing voters in battleground states will be seriously diluted by Kerry's massive $25 million ad buy that began yesterday touting his service in Vietnam. In other words, the Veterans' press conference and letter may not have much of a short-term impact on Kerry's numbers. But it will be a different story after Labor Day when the Bush camp puts clips from the letter and footage from the press conference into an ad of their own and spends enough money in those same battleground states to make it hurt. How will Kerry be able to effectively rebut this letter when the time comes? Very good question. As it turns out, the answer to the question is "not effectively at all," which is why the Kerry campaign seems to be teetering on the verge of a meltdown. - T. Bevan

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (615610)	9/1/2004 9:04:13 AM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 769670

Four Months and a Heap of Medals: Unable to avoid service in Vietnam, Kerry, infatuated with JFK and his mythical PT-109 heroics, worked his way into an assignment as a swift boat skipper. In under four months in the coastal regions of Vietnam, Kerry managed to collect a Bronze Star with combat "V", a Silver Star and, of course, the requisite three Purple Hearts--which got him a quick ticket home to launch his political career. But his medals are melting. Regarding his Bronze Star, Kerry claimed at the Demo-confab that he got the medal for actions on the night of 13 March 1969. It was then, he said, after a mine explosion and while under fire, that five swift boats in the patrol team fled the area while he kept his boat back to rescue Lt. James Rassmann. Kerry's campaign now admits that he fled while the other boats remained on station, and returned later to pull Rassmann out of the water--the same Rassmann who'd been dumped into the water when Kerry's boat sped off. Regarding his Silver Star (the nation's third-highest decoration after the Medal of Honor and Service Crosses), it was awarded for ''gallantry'' after Kerry's boat was fired on and his gunner fired back, wounding a young combatant on the shore. Kerry then beached his boat (a reckless dereliction of duty), chased the wounded VC around the corner of a hut, and shot him. Gallantry? Further, Kerry's DD 214 Record of Transfer or Separation (posted on his website), lists a Silver Star with a combat "V" (for valor)--but, according to the Navy Awards Manual, the "V" Combat Distinguishing Device is never awarded with the Silver Star. Stranger yet, Kerry's Silver Star has not one citation, but three--each one a revision of the previous, and the last revision made more than 20 years after the first. For an excellent analysis of these altered citations, visit kerry-04.org and read the report by Henry Mark Holzer, professor emeritus at Brooklyn Law School, and Erika Holzer, a lawyer and co-author, with Professor Holzer, of Fake Warriors: Identifying, Exposing and Punishing Those Who Falsify Their Military Service. (A second edition is forthcoming with a new preface entitled ''John Kerry: The Ultimate Fake Warrior.'')