Kerry's Quagmire: How the liberal media helped re-elect President Bush
Taranto, James
Kerry's Quagmire How the liberal media helped re-elect President Bush. HAT THE DEMOCRATS THINKING? n Kerry have "loser" writtener him? After all, he was not only Massachusetts Democrat but Mic a...
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...Yup, I have been," replied Kerry...
...But few other liberal journalists shared Beinart's insight...
...would have to spend the equivalent of $150 billion a year in the Middle East to maintain a force equivalent to Israel's...
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...Jordan...
...it later emerged that he had kept his medals and tossed someone else's...
...0 F COURSE, the President's National Guard service proved to be Rather's undoing rather than Bush's...
...A tip of the hat to the Media Research Center for the quotes from Morton, Pitts, and Rather...
...These calumnies left many veterans angry and resentful, and they made it likely that Vietnam would prove to be the candidate's Achcontinued on page 48 JULY/AUGUST 2005 THE AME 76-2000 26-2211 46-9640 86-2100 426.92 Now 20, OW Now 20, 4arkei NOW 204 $94.99 NOW 20, Read the truth here...
...If the media had treated his war-hero narrative with more skepticism in the first place, he might have reached this realization—and developed a better campaign strategy—much earlier...
...contributes more than $130 billion...
...We have virtually no overhead...
...Rather, it seemed, had stumbled on a way to get a straight answer out of the notoriously nuanced nominee...
...Then, in early September, CBS News aired its disastrous story on Bush's National Guard service...
...Forbes proposes a more sobering 17...
...But tonight the loner will stand alone here in his hometown one more time and look to do what John F. Kerry has nearly always done—find a way to win...
...Compared to the $2.0 billion yearly military aid to Israel, the U.S...
...In a 1971 protest, Kerry threw what were ostensibly his own medals over a fence surrounding the U.S...
...The Kerry campaign's narrative contrasted its man with Bush, whom it portrayed as a slacker who avoided Vietnam by using political connections to secure a spot in the Texas Air National Guard...
...Conservatives love to complain about liberal media bias, and for the most part they're right...
...BY THE WAY, did you know that John Kerry served in Vietnam...
...Yet exit polls showed that Democratic primary voters backed him because he was "electable...
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...Before reading his prepared speech, he saluted and declared that he was "reporting for duty...
...Israel pays its bills...
...He first rose to public prominence not for his exploits in combat but for his leadership of the radical Vietnam Veterans Against the Wax 48 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY/AUGUST 2005 You deserve a factual look at . . . 2C Aid to Israel Does the U.S...
...Yet it's far from clear that such sympathy serves the Democrats' interests...
...It is now a western bulwark against the aggressive intents of Iran and other bellicose nations that threaten the interests of the United States...
...Aid to Israel is America's greatest defense bargain...
...Israel and Egypt are the two largest recipients of U.S...
...You have to tell people about yourself again and again...
...Perhaps Kerry was traumatized in 'Nam and finds his experience there difficult to talk about...
...But Democrats expect the mainstream media to treat them sympathetically—an expectation that has ample basis in experience...
...There was also something deeply weird about the way Kerry talked about his Vietnam experience...
...The only democratic country in the Middle East...
...Whereupon the Swift Boat Veterans turned their attention to Kerry's antiwar activities, on which they had him dead to rights...
...Capitol...
...Shipping and handling (plus sales tax, where applicable) is added to each Order...
...By constantly reminding Americans of the one war we lost, Kerry fed suspicions that his attitude toward the war on terror was a defeatist one...
...Yet there's a case to be made on the other side: that the liberal media actually helped President Bush, rendering the Kerry campaign ineffective by telling Democrats what they wanted to hear rather than what was true...
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...He's a tough-minded capitalist He's also a crisis manager: smart, organized, visionary, and fearless...
...every year to the defense of Europe and more than $30 billion to the defense of Japan, Korea, and the Far East...
...Former President Reagan put it well: "The fall of Iran has increased Israel's value as perhaps the only remaining strategic asset in the region on which the United States can fully rely...
...The tone hadn't changed six months later, when CBS's Byron Pitts filed the following report in advance of Kerry's convention appearance: "The day before his speech, Kerry crossed Boston Harbor with some of his crewmates from Vietnam...
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...But once Kerry won the nomination, he had—or seemed to have—something else going for him: the support of the liberal media, which loathed President Bush and yearned for his defeat...
...Not for him the quiet dignity of the true war hero...
...Israel has one of the best armies in the world...
...Of course "electable" at that point chiefly meant "not Howard Dean," whose campaign in retrospect seems more performance art than politics...
...In its most classic presentation, it is literally a tithe, a tenth of income paid to the feds...
...This surely would have gone a long way to defusing the issue...
...It is a most reliable partner in the promotion of Western strategic interests and in the stabilization of the Middle East...
...The`FREE C'magazine is sent to yen 12 limes a year (about every 4 weeks...
...They have one battle left...
...It is stunning," Kerry told the paper's editors...
...In a July 22 interview on the CBS Evening News, Dan Rather asked Kerry: "Speaking of angry, have you ever had any anger about President Bush—who spent his time during the Vietnam War in the National Guard—running, in effect, a campaign that does its best to diminish your service in Vietnam...
...weapons systems...
...I Yes in No Have you ever bought anything by mail...
...that's going to be worth maybe 15 points...
...Aid to Israel is America's greatest defense bargain...
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...He performed adequately in the debates, and with the help of a massive get-out-the-vote effort he avoided a landslide defeat...
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...It would be more in line with reality if military aid to Israel were classified as part of the defense budget, rather than as "aid...
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...For one, the supposition that a military record is a key to electoral success finds little support in history Presidents have been elected on the strength of their military service—Washington, Grant, Eisenhower—but these men were generals who led America to victory in its three greatest wars, not junior officers in an unpopular and losing conflict...
...A month after the Democratic Convention, they launched their first round of anti-Kerry ads, coinciding with the publication of Unfit for Command...
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...It is committed to freedom and equality, and the rule of law...
...Israel, in the light of its experience, continually modifies U.S...
...In a December 2002 Meet the Press appearance, Kerry mentioned Vietnam nine times by Beinart's count, including in answer to a question about why he favored capital punishment for terrorists: "Just as I, in a war, was prepared to kill in defense of my nation, I also believe that you eliminate the enemy...
...troops are stationed with NATO and over 30,000 U.S...
...One exception was ABC's Charlie Gibson, who in April 2004 confronted Kerry about the 1971 medal incident...
...But they should count their blessings, too...
...Paul Sperry translates the Aesopian language with which they cloak their intentions and exposes their enablers among Americans who should know better...
...There's going to be this glow about them...
...Over 300,000 U.S...
...You can't take anything for granted...
...As the Washington Post's liberal TV critic, Tom Shales, acknowledged with hindsight in an Inauguration Day column, "It's common knowledge that Bush was a spoiled little rich boy who did not serve with any great distinction, so this story wasn't exactly a blockbuster...
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...BY JAMES TARANTO 44 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY/AUGUST 2005 The media helped the Kerry campaign get out its "war hero" message...
...Especially in New Hampshire...
...Is Saudi Arabia more stable...
...James Taranto is editor of OpinionJournaLcom, the website of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page...
...Was 2004 different by virtue ofbeing a wartime election...
...You'll always have 10 days to decide...
...The band of brothers stands in its way...
...There is no other country in the Middle East except Israel that can be considered to have a stable government or populace friendly to the United States...
...Yet even if it had been true—or had gone undebunked—it's unlikely it would have made a difference...
...During the Cold War, it was America's indispensable rampart against the inroads and expansionist ambitions of the Soviet Union...
...The Democrats' problem isn't that Americans think they're wimps who lack personal courage," Peter Beinart, editor of the liberal New Republic, noted in December 2002...
...He was as liberal as Dukakis bu cked the inspiring immigrant ackground: a ho married another man's forune, from a s here a man can marry another , He had a hty air, and he looked French, or so anony s Republicans told the New York Ti erry replied, "The White House has starte s olitics of personal destruction"—proving that he was thin-skinned as well...
...If Thomas was right, then Bush would have wonre-election with a popular-vote margin of between 7.5 and 17.5 percent of the total vote—rather than the 2.5 percent he actually got—but for the liberal media...
...Thomas later revised his estimate downward, to five points...
...Of that amount, $2.0 billion is for military aid and $0.8 billion for economic aid...
...Again, the media played along...
...They enable us to pursue these goals and to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines...
...His band of brothers...
...In contrast, not one single U.S...
...The media, I think, wants Kerry to win," Evan Thomas of Newsweek said last July...
...This experience is immediately conveyed to the U.S...
...Only fraction of aid stays in Israel...
...it's clarity and direction...
...The CBS debacle marked the end of Vietnam as a campaign issue...
...Bush himself beat two Vietnam veterans in 2000: POW John McCain and Army journalist Al Gore...
...Only a fraction of the aid given stays in Israel...
...weapons...
...The U.S...
...In July, he arrived at Boston's FleetCenter to accept his party's nomination for president of the United States...
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...Its navy and air force are the major deterrent forces in the eastern Mediterranean...
...It receives $2.8 billion every year...
...If so, it was a difficulty he managed to overcome...
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...equipment are instantly at hand in Israel...
...If the Republicans had any hope of casting Kerry as some Michael Dukakis-style effete Eastern liberal, that's over," declared CNN's Bruce Morton on January 30, three days after Kerry's New Hampshire victory made him the all-but-certain nominee...
...It's fair to ask whether this is a good deal for the American taxpayer...
...One veteran quoted in Unfit for Command summed things up pointedly: "In 1971-72, for almost 18 months, [Kerry] stood before the television audiences and claimed that the 500,000 men and women in Vietnam, and in combat, were all villains—there were no heroes...
...I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards—I'm talking about the establishment media, not Fox—but they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic and all...
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...military analysts estimate that the U.S...
...military derives from Israel...
...Still, the superb military installations, the air and sea lift capabilities, the equipment and food storage capacity, and the trained manpower to maintain and repair sophisticated U.S...
...American aid to Israel is a two-way street...
...And Kerry's own Vietnam story was, to say the least, complicated...
...You have to be at least irritated by that, or have you been...
...For instance, Israeli scientists have made over 200 improvements in the F-15 alone and similar improvements, mostly in avionics, in later-generation planes...
...Suppose that, once Kerry secured the nomination, the media had aggressively investigated and reported on his antiwar activities...
...There is much danger that any military aid to Arab countries, and military equipment given or sold to them, will suffer the same fate as the untold billions of dollars and priceless military secrets that were lost to our enemies in the debacle of Iran...
...Over 20% of its budget goes for defense, compared to 7% in the U.S...
...troops in the Far East...
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...He might have concluded by saying of the Vietnam conflict, "I hope and pray we will put it behind us and go forward in a constructive spirit for the good of our party and the good of our country"—the words with which he ended a February 1992 Senate speech criticizing fellow Vietnam vet Bob Kerrey for trying to make Bill Clinton's draft avoidance an issue in that year's Democratic primaries...
...But the ads goaded Kerry into responding, which in turn forced the media to pay attention...
...Enormous quantities of captured Soviet weapons and defense systems were turned over to the U.S...
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...This brief entry on his resume—a four-month tour of duty for a (then) nearly 20-year Senate veteran—turned out to be central to the myth that the Democrats, with help from sympathetic media, tried but failed to build around Kerry...
...Israel is truly America's unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Middle East...
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...After the Swift Boat Veterans and Rathergate, it must have been clear even to Kerry that campaigning on Vietnam had led him into a quagmire...
...Satisladien is guaranteed...
...It is the only country in the area that makes itself availableto the United States, in any contingency...
...He first rose to public prominence not for his exploits in combat but for his leadership of the radical Vietnam Veterans Against the War...
...rather, he spoke of his combat experience with an odd combination of braggadocio and obsessiveness...
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...But long before Rathergate and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, there were reasons to doubt that Kerry's Vietnam narrative would be a winning strategy...
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...Israel is the only genuinely democratic state in the Middle East...
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...The claims that Kerry had falsified his heroics in order to win medals and an early end to his tour of duty were mostly unverifiable, and fair-minded Americans probably would have been inclined to give Kerry the benefit of the doubt...
...The candidate would have been forced to respond...
...American aid to Israel is a two-way street...
...get its money's worth...
...By far the largest share remains with American defense contractors...
...soldier needs to be stationed and put at risk in Israel...
...military for analysis...
...After all, he was not only/ assachusetts Democrat but Mic a Dukalds's former lieutenant gov or...
...Bill Clinton, who evaded military service altogether, defeated World War II heroes in both 1992 and 1996...
...Kerry answered evasively, then muttered into a live microphone that Gibson was "doing the work of the Republican National Committee...
...Kuwait...
...Israel effectively secures NATO's southeastern flank, without having a single American soldier stationed in its territory...
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...Israel's military and political importance in the Middle East and its strategic position stabilize the entire area, including the oil fields of the Persian Gulf...
...Were it not for the media reinforcing the Democrats' spin, John Kerry might be president today...
...and less than 1% in Japan...
...Israel is the only country that has gained battlefield experience with U.S...
...Peter McPherson, former administrator of the Agency for International Development, estimated that every billion dollars of aid to Israel creates 60,000 to 70,000 jobs in the United States...
...In 2004, one hero from the Vietnam War has appeared, running for president of the United States and commander in chief...
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...But Abraham Lincoln and Richard Nixon both won re-election against dovish veterans, and wartime presidents Lincoln, Wilson, and FDR all had little or no military experience...
...It embodies the fundamental values that are in tune with those of America and that America has traditionally supported...
...Write book number here: KERRY'S QUAGMIRE illes' heel rather than his silver bullet...
...THE KERRY CAMP evidently hoped the media would gloss over the candidate's antiwar activities, and for the most part, for many months, they did...
...If he had been smart, he would have delivered a major speech in which, without renouncing his opposition to the Vietnam War, he repudiated and apologized for his decades-old slanders against fellow veterans...
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...KERRY'S UAGMIRE How the liberal media helped re-elect President Bush...
...To hear them tell it, Kerry's Vietnam stint was one of the best-kept secrets in American politics...
...For its"participation" in the Gulf War, Egypt was forgiven its indebtedness of $9 billion...
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...So eager were Kerry's supporters in the media to believe the worst of the president that Rather and producer Mary Mapes went to air with a report based on obviously fabricated documents, then stood by their story for an agonizing two weeks...
...Its purpose is the research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world...
...In the remaining weeks before the election, Kerry talked a lot less about Vietnam and more about matters of contemporary concern...
...Each issue reviews the main selections and a variety of alternate books...
...Egypt...
...Bush understands that in this terrifying new era, what Americans want from their leaders isn't heroism...
...Earlier that year, Kerry had testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that American servicemen had committed "war crimes," including rape, murder and torture, "on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command...
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...Instead, Kerry bet that the media's silence would carry him through to the election—andhe would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for those meddling Swift Boat Veterans...
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...senator from Massachusetts said few voters in neighboring New Hampshire even know he's a military veteran," the Eagle-Tribune of Andover, Massachusetts, reported in October 2003, three months before the Granite State primary...
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...It just galls one to think about it...
...This was a telling comment...
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...Gibson was, in truth, doing the work of a journalist: asking a politician tough questions...
Vol. 38 • July 2005 • No. 6
