WASHINGTON - The presidential campaign trail took a side trip down memory lane today when the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth re-surfaced.
The Swift Boat group was responsible for raising doubts about Democrat John Kerry’s war record in Vietnam, where the Massachusetts senator had served on a small combat vessel known as a swift boat.
The group’s charges were so contentious — it said Kerry did not deserve the combat medals that he subsequently tossed on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to protest the war — that the slogan, “the Swift Boating of John Kerry” became a metaphor for the 2004 campaign that George W. Bush won.
Against that backdrop, one of the Swift Boat veterans turned up on a conference call that Republican John McCain’s camp held to defend McCain’s war record after retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a supporter of Democrat Barack Obama, said just because McCain’s plane was shot down over Vietnam does not make him qualified to be president.
The Swift Boater was retired Col. Bud Day. A reporter on the call asked Day how the current flap over Clark’s comments compared to the Swift Boat flap.
Day said that, well, the charges against Kerry were accurate and the ones against McCain were inaccurate.
“The Swift Boat attacks were simply a revelation of the truth,” Day said.
This prompted the expected outrage from Democrats, including Kerry himself.
“John McCain condemned these kinds of attacks in 2004 when he called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ‘dishonest and dishonorable.’ Senator McCain should condemn these remarks and cut ties with the colonel and anyone else connected to SBVT (Swift Boat Veterans for Truth),” Kerry said in a statement.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
Photo: Reuters/Joshua Roberts - Sen. John McCain speaks to National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials at a Washington, D.C. conference on June 28, 2008.
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I am so tired of this mudslinging….it makes me angry, tired and embarrassed. I do hope my candidate can take the high road, and refuse to respond to this smarmy garbage. And, you know who that is….
- Posted by margo[...] come out very strongly to defend Obama’s patriotism. And oh yeah, he’s using one of the Swift Boat Veterans as a surrogate now. So what gives, Richard Wolffe? Turns out McCain did go out of his way to be [...]
- Posted by Either Relevant or True » Give Them Something To Cry AboutCol Bod Day is the highest decorated officer since Gen Douglas MacArthur, being awarded the medal of honor and 69 other decorations. I think he’s qualified to speak on the subject.
- Posted by RCCool post! No matter what you think about Obama, he does seem to have an affect on people. Just today I read a story about a veteran who gave his introduction at the Independence, Mo speech and it was a big deal to him. Here is the link to the story, it is pretty interesting. http://www.pitch.com.
- Posted by Hannah Zimmerman[...] on swiftboat veterans. In 2004, he condemned the swiftboat veterans, now, he endorses them, with Bud Day back on the scene. #73: John McCain is a tax cheater. Cindy McCain failed to pay property taxes on time - that is not [...]
- Posted by 101 Reasons to Not Vote for McCain, by Bill Press « Perverted Truth