Comments on: Comedy is not pretty

By: John Gibson

John Gibson — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 20:56:23 +0000

cafl, I agree which is why I don’t understand why they didn’t bring it up at the convention. It could of diffused most of the criticism about his after war activities before it even began. Instead it looked like he was trying to hide from his work opposing the war.

By: cafl

cafl — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 19:54:30 +0000

John Kerry has nothing to apologize for in his work opposing the war. You need to read this pulitzer award winning report.

By: John Gibson

John Gibson — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 17:29:02 +0000

robbo, no doubt, and here is what I as a politically naive observer would of done. I would brought up the anti-Vietnam war period at the convention, maybe said a line or two similar to his response on Russert’s show about not regretting it but maybe saying he regretted some of the language he used. I would think doing something like that would do something to blunt attacks like the new one which although completly out of context is still damning. The fact that is post vietnam behavior got no play in Boston it looks like he was hiding that part of his history and it makes the current ads a lot more effective.

By: Barry

Barry — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 16:13:19 +0000

Yes, it’s so unfair of Kerry. Now, if Bush had done something like pose in a flight suit, in an arranged media event, to make a triumphant ‘mission accomplished’ speech, it’d be different.

By: robbo

robbo — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 09:23:34 +0000

Well, John Gibson, I guess that’s why you’re not running Kerry’s campaign. They were going to smear him no matter what he did, so he created conditions under which he’s not simply reacting to their smears by going to his Vietnam record. He also opens up room for people to keep on questioning where the hell President Bush was all those months/years of the war that he oddly keeps not accounting for. Bush is sinking slowly into his own tarpit…

By: John Gibson

John Gibson — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 02:51:12 +0000

jmote, if Bush makes his TANG service part of his campaign the media should absolutely go deeper into it. I am going to hold my nose and vote Kerry this year because he’s ABB. But I am appalled by him making Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign and then whining when people challenge it. Most may not be true, but there is enough problems in his backround that he should of never gone there… I.e. Cambodia and his anti-war comments after he was back.

By: Jmote

Jmote — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 02:09:09 +0000

Throughout all this focus on Kerry and the mudslinging of the right, I keep wondering why the mainstream media is still ignoring to investigate or report on extremely questionable issues regarding Bush’s past. Why are they still giving him a free pass?

By: Paul Gottlieb

Paul Gottlieb — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 00:01:06 +0000

Viewed correctly, the Swift Boat Veterans smear attack can be an enormous plus for Kerry. Almost everyone recognizes these attackts as a viscious stream of lies organized and coordinated by the Bush campaign. So Kerry has the opportunity to force Bush to either admit that he is behind this scurrilous attack, in which case he will be revealed as a backstabbing coward, or Bush can continue to lie and pretend he is not behing the attacks, in which case Kerry can simply call him a liar and a coward and challenge Bush to do something about it. If Kerry is agressive and smart he can shove that Swift Boat crap right down Bush’s throat

By: Basharov

Basharov — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 23:14:47 +0000

“intellectual honesty would require that I admit that even UNDER THE WORST POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION, the swiftboat kids did nothing worse or more dishonest that Michael Moore.” Yeah, it was soooo dishonest of Moore to show the video of Bush, after he was told that the country was under attack, sitting there looking like a total idiot for seven minutes while the second graders chanted from a book about a pet goat. Damn that dishonest videotape.

By: Zizka

Zizka — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 23:02:42 +0000

Steve, if you run into my friends Adrian Spidle, Patrick R. Sullivan, or Norman Rogers, say hi for me. And give them a big wet kiss for me too. “A lie can travel around the world while the truth is putting its pants on”—Mark Twain. “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time….”—Abraham Lincoln Lincoln and Twain didn’t intend these statements to be operating instructions, but that’s how Rove took them. BTW, all this stuff about “Adult Republicans” who should know better, etc., etc.: If a majority of sensible conservatives reluctantly supported Hitler in 1932 (and they did)—a fortiori, the majority of sensible conservatives will support Bush in 2004. Before invoking Godwin’s law, figure out how a fortiori functions in the sentence. The Adult Republican is an endangered species, if not a mythical beast.

By: JP

JP — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 22:27:25 +0000

Well, they’re still at it. Typical Karl Rove strategy. Never apologize, never back down. When people object, just turn up the volume even more. If you are always confident and aggressive and push ahead in all cases, gullible people will assume that you’re right.

By: Barry

Barry — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 21:46:02 +0000

Steve: “intellectual honesty would require that I admit that even UNDER THE WORST POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION, the swiftboat kids did nothing worse or more dishonest that Michael Moore.” Incorrect, unless you have records by MM written back during Vietnam, which he is now contradicting.

By: william

william — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 21:20:30 +0000

So, do you think John Kerry’s birth certificate is real or did they fake that, too?

By: abb1

abb1 — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 21:15:34 +0000

The worst-case realistic scenario has this party in charge of all three major branches of government, with the Bush administration now free of whatever constraints reelection imposed… If they win, they won’t be free of constraints. For two years after 9/11 Bush was flying high in the polls – between 90% and 60% and this is how they were able to do all the crap they’ve done. He now has 47-48% approval. Even if he wins it’s not going to be a cakewalk. If his rating goes down to 40% and under, he is likely to become totally irrelevant. There is a chance, of course, that he’ll hit another jackpot if something gets blown up in the US again…

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 20:16:34 +0000

Silly silly silly. While I don’t agree with what you fools are saying, if I did so, intellectual honesty would require that I admit that even UNDER THE WORST POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION, the swiftboat kids did nothing worse or more dishonest that Michael Moore. What are you arguing? That American democracy is threatened because a right wing group formed a 30 second commercial and wrote a book that is as dishonest as a 2 hour documentary and several books by Moore, Dowd, Ivins, etc? The democratic leadership attended the D.C. opening of Fahrenheit 911-has the republican leadership done anything comparable with the Swiftboat group/commercial/book? You guys are so hypocritical, you should write for the Times. Steve Steve