McCain condemns anti-Kerry ads, calls on White House to follow suit
 

Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry's military service "dishonest and dishonorable" and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.

The White House declined.

"It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press, comparing the anti-Kerry ad to tactics in his bitter Republican primary fight with President Bush.

The 60-second ad features Vietnam veterans who accuse the Democratic presidential nominee of lying about his decorated Vietnam War record and betraying his fellow veterans by later opposing the conflict.

"When the chips were down, you could not count on John Kerry," one of the veterans, Larry Thurlow, says in the ad. Thurlow didn't serve on Kerry's swiftboat, but says he witnessed the events that led to Kerry winning a Bronze Star and the last of his three Purple Hearts. Kerry's crewmates support the candidate and call him a hero.

The ad, scheduled to air in a few markets in Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin, was produced by Stevens, Reed, Curcio and Potham, the same team that produced McCain's ads in 2000.

"I wish they hadn't done it," McCain said of his former advisers. "I don't know if they knew all the facts."

Asked if the White House knew about the ad or helped find financing for it, McCain said, "I hope not, but I don't know. But I think the Bush campaign should specifically condemn the ad."

McCain, chairman of Bush's campaign in Arizona, later said the Bush campaign has denied any involvement and added, "I can't believe the president would pull such a cheap stunt."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan declined to condemn the ad. He did denounce the proliferation of spending by independent groups, such as the anti-Kerry veterans organization, that are playing on both sides of the political fence.

"The president thought he got rid of this unregulated soft money when he signed the bipartisan campaign finance reform into law," McClellan said. A chief sponsor of that bill, which Bush initially opposed, was McCain.

In 2000, Bush's supporters sponsored a rumor campaign against McCain in the South Carolina primary, helping Bush win the primary and the nomination. McCain's supporters have never forgiven the Bush team.

McCain said that's all in the past to him, but he's speaking out against the anti-Kerry ad because "it reopens all the old wounds of the Vietnam War, which I spent the last 35 years trying to heal."

"I deplore this kind of politics," McCain said. "I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat (Kerry) commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under fire. I think John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam. I think George Bush served honorably in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War."


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...type=printable

The TV spots from both sides, but particularly the GOP, have been particularly nasty and misleading this election.

I'm unplugging my TV until after November.

That sounds like a good idea to me.

I like McCain. He's probably doing this to gain more appeal for another future presidential bid, but I really enjoy how he doesn't play nicey-nice with the good 'ol boys.

Re: McCain condemns anti-Kerry ads, calls on White House to follow suit
 

One of the veterans in the ad was on the Dick Cavett show after the War WITH Kerry debating him on issues. I think these Veterans have issues with Kerry moreso because HE'S putting his 4 months of service out there like that's his best attribute and campaigning heavily on that, but he doesn't want to talk about the things he said and did after he came back. If we wants to tout his success in the war as his greatest achievement, call GWB all types of names, lie on him and say any and everything you can possibly think of that's negative about him, they should be ready for anything back in return. All's fair in love and politics.

Both sides have crossed the line with their ads.

If anything made me DISlike Kerry...it was criticizing GWB for continuing to read that story to the children on 9/11. That did it for me. He's definitely Scary Kerry! :mad:

I hope you're right. He would have had my vote in 2000 and he'd have it again anytime in the future.

I'm really quite surprised that after all the nasty stuff Bush did to him in 2000 that he's willing to stump for him during the campaign. I suppose it's being the better man.

It's easy to criticize people for something you yourself never experienced.

My thought is that he's just as ambitious as any of the rest. He's just smarter about it and is able to play both sides of the aisle to his favor.

I hope in 2008, Republicans and Democrats are smart enough to vote for someone besides "the annointed one". I hate the feeling in the general election that seems to always creep up that someone we didn't choose in the primaries would have been a far better candidate.

Hell- 4 times Cheney got out of serving, three times for being in college, the fourth because his wife was having a baby.

I imagine a lot of Vietnam vets would have loved the priviledge to remain for a child's birth.

I don't like Cheney much, but what he did was perfectly legal and a lot of young men did it. There were exemptions from the draft for as long as you were in good standing in college, and until late in the Vietnam war, there were exemptions for being a father as well.

Then, when graduation rolled around, we either joined, got drafted, or if your parents had enough political pull, you could jump to the head of the months long waiting list and get into the National Guard. Lots of people did that, too.

EXACTLY!

I'm so glad that McCain said something. It's the EXACT same thing that Bush tried to pull on him and I personally think that he never got over it.

The guys in that ad weren't even in the BOAT with him! I'm going to believe these idiots over guys in the boat with him and the guy who's life he saved? Puh-lease!:rolleyes:

It's not what he did during the war but what he did after.

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/

-Rudey

That isn't true. I watched the interview with one of the guys in that ad on MSNBC and he was talking about being in a boat 50 feet from Kerry and that the guy he saved did fall in the water, but no one was shooting at them at the time. The guy who Kerry saved(I really need to find out his name, lol) was on the show as well and I believe him.

So yes they are attacking what he did DURING the war as well.

There are always people attacking everything and most people are not happy with Kerry's actions AFTER the war.

-Rudey

I'm so glad I live in a state where Bush doesn't even try.

Really, we have no ads right now...Kerry and Obama have the biggies locked up.

But that isn't the ONLY thing they are attacking. I've seen the interviews and they weren't only talking about his actions after the war, THAT'S my point.

McCain and Kerry are friends and I'm glad he stood up for his brother in combat.

Stop capitalizing your words. It's annoying. And I didn't say it was the only thing. Please READ.

-Rudey

READ what you typed again before replying for 500, Alex?
;)

Right. Read it again. It's not an absolute statement. In fact it doesn't make reference to who does share that sentiment.

LEARN TO READ BEFORE YOU EVER TELL SOMEONE ELSE TO READ BECAUSE YOU SUCK AT JEOPARDY AND GREEKCHAT.COM.

-Rudey

Hahahahahahaha....

Sorry just finished watching the CBC doing an editoral report into the add....

Hahahahahahaha...

I can't help it, the morons in the ad lost all crediblilty with just a little digging... such as the guy who claims that there was no hostile fire... hmmm you got a decoration for the same action and whats this? hello an acount of hostile fire? and the man Kerry rescued also telling you he was under fire... funny how he didn't want to do an interview ;)

Oh wait there's more... another veteran in the ad was actually the commander that recommended Kerry for the Silver Star.... I'd love to hear his explaination for this...

Oh shit there's even more... is it interesting to see where the money came from, and who was involved... yep it's the Texas Republicans and good'ol Karl. Well I guess if attacking a veteran's service record worked against McCain, it'll work against Kerry too...:rolleyes:

There's not enough news in Canada to cover on the CBC? I guess it's a little strange that another country does reporting on an advertisement for another country's elections.

-Rudey

Yes shocking isn't... that we like to educate ourselves about the political happenings of our neighbour to the south... :rolleyes:

Update> well this morning Kerry's statements about the Swiftboat Veteran's for Truth: as in doing dirty work for Bush; happened to also make the front page of the newspapers too.

Guess us Canadians cant' get enough news about the rest of the world... Rudey you should write a complaint to the Canadian news media sources and chastise them on reporting news outside of Canada.

No no never use educate in any of your posts. You've come on here repeatedly and posted lies and inaccuracies. In fact you don't even know the details for this yet, again, you are posting things against Bush because you are so anti-American and anti-Bush.

-Rudey

Two thoughts:

McCain is upset because he sees his hard fought-and-won legislation, which will forever have his name on it, doing just what opponents said it would do. Now they're right, he's wrong, and he is embarassed. BTW, I like the guy.

Secondly, GOP ads have not been negative. Others like the swift boat ads are negative.
But not nearly as negative as a Soros sponsored ad for Kerry that alludes to Bush as Hitler.

And a third, bonus thought!

Why did Kerry put his four months out there as his centerpiece instead of his twenty years in the Senate?
Just a thought for inquiring minds...:p

I've always thought of it in the sense that we have experienced war recently which could possible allude to why he uses it during the time of a "war president."

Let's not talk about negative ads involving Hitler. No, no, not even the one in which Bush ran regarding "The Faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party" in which they used spliced images of Hitler. This was in response to an add that was in submission to moveon.org during a period of time in which many people submitted ads for a contest they held. Moveon.org removed the ad which compared Bush to Hitler and denounced it as well.

Maybe he also did it to contrast the service of our current president?


Ever get those stats on how Enron "actually gave more to democrats over time"?
Link

That ad actually showed imaged of the Moveon.org ad. That part on Hitler was the Moveon.org ad. The whole point of the ad was that it was ridiculous for certain people to make such extreme accusations and it was also shamefully ignorant of Democrats for making the Holocaust seem like a trivial act.

-Rudey

Rudey, Thank You. Keep the faith!

Those who fight ignorance are in a never-ending battle.

Ever feel like you're in a dog-eat-dog world wearing milk bone underwear? ;)

You mean like the ignorance where "Enron gave more Democrats over time?" Did you still not get those stats?

IN any event, Rudey did make some good points because I didn't know that the moveon.org ad was spliced into the Bush ad. But the point is that moveon.org denounced the ad. The ad was not run by the Kerry campaign but the Bush campaign decided to show it as John Kerry's Democratic Party when it was produced by an idiot and it was quickly denounced even by those horrible Democrats over at moveon.org. I don't speak for all Democrats but I have a good feeling that most people didn't/don't agree with someone comparing Bush to Hitler.

But let's talk about Enron and get back to fighting ignorance! ow ow!

Huh... well yes I'm anti-Bush, but shockingly that doesn't make me anti-American, nor does it make anyone who feels that the Bush administration is one of the worst things to happen to the US. You'll note that I have never stooped to your level and insulted all Americans (as you have Canadians), my insults and critizism has been directed against individuals and/or groups that I disagree with or oppose.

Now an intelligent person might realise that the actions of these Swiftboat Veterans are incredibly damaging to the moral credibility of the GOP campaign (at least abroad), as are some of the other ethical interesting actions taken on the campaign trail - case in point the whole screened and prepared audiences that Bush has in his question periods. The reason that the CBC did some investigation into the ad controversy was as a media analysis of an attack ad's reception in the voting public, and how these ads are made (basically were the money comes from). They showed and discussed ads from both sides, and delved into the politics behind the ads... it's just the Swiftboat ad was particularly singled out for it's lies (not bending of truth) and it's finacial ties to the Bush campaign, and the history of the makers of the ad - same guys who attacked McCain's service when he opposed Bush. The conection to the CBC and the ads was a comparison to the US public reaction to the Swiftboat ad, and the Canadian reaction to the ad - and how it compared to the now infamous (in Canada) attack ad against Chretien, which ended up costing the Conservatives the election and nearly their existance.

"We have not and will not question Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One. "The president is calling for an immediate cessation to all the unregulated soft money activity."

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20...5811-6900r.htm

Bush has come out against the ads - whether it's as forcefully as some would like, that's open to debate, but he and his campaign have come out against all third party ads, whether they be Moveon.org or the swift boat vets.

It certainly adds a new wrinkle to the whole election season.

Did anyone notice that Dole came out on the side of the Swiftboat vets saying how he couldn't imagine someone receiving the purple heart for something that didn't even land them in a hospital?

Keep in mind, Dole only won ONE purple heart for being shot out of the sky and almost killed.

I think the swiftboat vets message is something that people should at least consider.

I noticed that as well - it was significant in my mind only because I hadn't really heard anything from Dole regarding the election until this point.

He lost function of his right hand after that incident, correct?

I never insulted all Canadians. But keep on dreaming. It must be difficult for you living in the shadow of America though. You have repeatedly come on here posting anti-American things, shown you know very little and with this election you have no say because YOU ARE NOT VOTING.

-Rudey

I'll consider their message but it's hard to believe coming from a group of men in which many did not directly serve with Kerry. Some are probably bitter of what Kerry said over thirty years ago regarding atrocities and such in Vietnam. Did these things happen? I'm sure some did as according to accounts told by other Vietnam vet throughout the years. Does Kerry actually know? Did he actually witness these things? Maybe, maybe not? Did the swiftboat vets actually witness these things? Maybe, maybe not? But I'll take the message from those that actually served with Kerry a little more serious.

Do the swiftboat vets have a right to be upset about what Kerry said after he returned home? Hell yes they do as well they should be. I think that's the biggest issue here (as Rudey has stated many times).

I wish we'd get off the purple heart debate already because it really cheapens it. Dole was shot down in a plane and almost killed and only received "ONE" purple heart. My grandfather was wounded twice in one encounter and only received "ONE" purple heart in that instant. He was wounded in two other separate encounters and received a purple heart for each. This was always a hot topic with my grandfather because there was a lot of controversy surrounding purple hearts in this era. Many thought that they were "given out like candy."

He once told me that you can never place any amount of medals on the sacrifice of a solider. You can't give a solider five purple hearts for almost being killed. You can't give a solider three purple hearts for losing a leg. You can't give a soldier two purple hearts for losing an arm. But you can give a solider one purple heart for being wounded in battle, demonstrating the risk the solider takes, a risk that could ultimately result in death. He told me you can never compare a material object to the wound of a soldier because the purple heart demonstrates the sacrifice of the soldier (no matter to what degree) during a time in which a solider can lose everything.

That's a debate I hold dear to me because my grandfather always did...

"All of them," the president said, when asked whether he specifically meant that the veteran's group's ad against Mr. Kerry should be stopped. "That means that ad, every other ad. Absolutely. I don't think we ought to have 527's. I can't be more plain about it, and I wish — I hope my opponent joins me in saying — condemning these activities of the 527's. It's — I think they're bad for the system."

-Rudey

Most international news organizations have picked up this topic. A quick glance at the first few pages of a google news search on "kerry" will confirm this.

I've never heard you insult all Canadians, but you definately have said some very anti-Canadian things. I seem to recall something about you saying you were going to bang the "only" two hot women in Canada for reading week. Or something. I tend to ignore it when I can.

I don't remember saying that. If I did I'm sure it was kinda funny. I think though that imthechamp said something about how he loved Canada for giving him 2 (not 1) chicks that he had sex with. I have Canadian family members and they are quite smart - developed a super-mall for your country in fact.

I love you Canadians but you need to love yourselves first.

-Rudey

So, let's see where we are.

Perhaps this swiftboat issue will die down since the President agrees with Kerry that the 527's are a bad thing.

I mean, it would seem that the vets got more bang for their little bucks than Soros has gotten for his 20 million or so, so this allows them to move on - oh, pardon the pun - and get to the issues.

I will be relieved to hear about the Senator's 20 year record in the Senate, and I'm just sure all of you will as well. I'm just sure he can't wait to brag on his accomplishments...

(Those of you who are not from "abroad", that is. Laughing out loud at the mere thought of Canada being "abroad".) :rolleyes:

Funny that people don't understand where the money came from for Moveon.

The man who gave much of the funding to Moveon.org is George Soros.

Soros was a large scale trader - operating one of the most powerful hedge funds at one point.

What Soros is know for, ahem notorious for, is destroying capital markets.

Soros would go into a market he knew a currency was aritificially valued at and buy and sell the currency. He would succeed because he had the ability to move that much capital at any given point.

So what happened? The most famous incident is Black Wednesday. Soros led a major assault on the British pound and the bank kept putting in more and more currency until finally it was all gone - in one day Soros ripped out 1.1 billion out of the system; the pound was removed from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. This money came from somewhere. Someone had to hurt to give it up. The thing is that there was an exploitable weakness in the system and he has every right to profit, but that right came at a price since this is a zero sum game. Soros went around the world doing this to many currency markets. He even tries to do it to the US in the last couple years but was prevented through newer regulations.

Back to Soros' Quantum Fund. It works out of Curacao and is unregulated really. His Quantum Fund is considered one of the biggest, if not the biggest, havens for laundering of Latin American drug money.

-Rudey
--Soros could buy and sell the Cheney, Bush, and Kerry families 200 times over.

Right on Rudey. And Soros has pledged whatever it takes to defeat Bush, whom he hates.

Why? Because he hates religion, and he has a hate on for Bush, who is religious. Incredible? Yes.

Even more than incredible - this is truly a frightening man. This man could be swaying markets even as we write, and doing lasting harm to our country, no matter who each of us supports in November. We don't count, you see. We are pawns in Soro's game.