Monday, April 16, 2007
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Swiftboating Rudy?
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
5:12 PM
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Geoffrey Gray of NY Mag writes:
Rudy Giuliani, speaking about terrorism and the Iraq war, said last week, “It is something I understand better than anyone else running for president.” How long will John McCain—a real-life war hero down seventeen points in the polls—stand for such bluster, considering the lengths Giuliani went to to stay out of Vietnam? ...
He won’t mention Rudy’s military history—yet. It’s too early in the primary cycle to go negative. But opponents know this is the warrior-mayor’s biggest weakness. “If Giuliani is the nominee, we’re going to hammer him with ads, and it’s going to be easy because the issue is simple: He’s a draft dodger,” says Jon Soltz, an Iraq vet who served as a captain and runs VoteVets.org, a left-leaning version of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. “Giuliani gets a zero-zero,” says General Wesley Clark, an adviser to the group. “He wasn’t willing to risk his life for his country, and he has no relevant experience that’s in any way useful to be commander-in-chief. He hosted the U.N. and had a large police force.”
The Left is clearly looking for paybacks. They are still mad about what happenend to John Kerry in '04. They are also upset that they weren't able to take George W. Bush down with his national guard service. They can't go after McCain, so Rudy is their newest target.
On the bright side; I don't see this working, do you?
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The Swiftboat Veterans for Truth were right. Don't turn their nobility of outing a fraud into a political cliche by referring to their organization as a verb ("to Swiftboat"). John Kerrey was and is a fraud, and we can thank the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth for their Yeoman's work in telling the truth about the would-be Commander-in-Chief. Remember, John Kerrey STILL has not authorized the release of his military records. |
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Lack of Vietnam experience will not matter. liberals will be glad he did not serve and conservatives are still upset, rightfully, at liberals for the way the war was handled. |
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If the future of the war in Iraq is still an issue by 2008 then Rudy would be vulnerable on the grounds that he wants others to go and do something he was unwilling to do himself. While it's true that none of the Democrat front-runners have any military credentials to speak of, they are calling for retreat and surrender, which is at least consistent. |
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Calm down. Speak English. Give up the excessive and incorrect punctuation.
John McCain may in fact be a lousy republican, but you don't rate to call him names. You don't rate to call him anything. |
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"She’s a draft dodger," say people about Hillary Clinton. "She wasn’t willing to risk her life for her country, and she has no relevant experience that’s in any way useful to be commander-in-chief."
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They want need to swift boat Rudy. Rudy has a lot of liberal baggage, and only looks conservative within the political arena of the "Big Apple". Outside the NYNY hemisphere, he's a tough sale to real conservatives. Picture a city of one million in the south or midwest with a conservative mayor that participates in gay pride parades, is very pro choice, has marriage issues, and does not like the 2nd ammendment?...............In the rest of the nation, that's a liberal. The front 3 for the GOP are all liberals. Only Tancredo,Gingrich,Hunter, and Thompson can actually post and produce solid conservative credentials. If the GOP allows the nomination to be $BOUGHT$ by a non conservative, the party will never recover, and a 3rd party will bloom as true conservatives leave in droves. Reagan spoiled us. |
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is in the 10 ring on this one.
The attack on Kerry was based on his fraudulant claims about his service, not on any lack of service. The "draft dodger" claim didn't stick on Mr. Clinton because he never claimed otherwise and the same will be true of Rudy.
I do hope they try it out nationally though because it is a petty mean-spirited thing to do; that will be obvious to all non-kool-aid drinking persons with normal cognitive skills. |
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The biggest problem is that the MSM will give Rudy a free pass until he gets the nomination and then he will be attacked on a number of fronts. The NYT has a boat load of negatives they can go after Rudy with, when the time is right.
It is not anyone particular issue as much as it is the total amount of issues. It will work because some conservatives will sit out if enough negatives are unloaded on Rudy. Rudy's support on the right can be eroded in the general.
Hilary will also move toward the Center. Obama can paint himself into just about anything and the media will cheerlead for him. |
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Kary spent his adult life slandering, libeling and disparaging the military in addition to being a certified fabulist who has no friends. It worked on Kary because it was true and because he throws like a girl. Rudy has never disparaged the military, I don't know if he throws like a man but he has never been caught spinning fractured fairy tales and he is very well liked... even among those of us absolutist conservatives who would never vote for him. It's just a "neener-neener" reaction by childish people. |
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Kary spent his adult life slandering, libeling and disparaging the military in addition to being a certified fabulist who has no friends. It worked on Kary because it was true and because he throws like a girl. Rudy has never disparaged the military, I don't know if he throws like a man but he has never been caught spinning fractured fairy tales and he is very well liked... even among those of us absolutist conservatives who would never vote for him. It's just a "neener-neener" reaction by childish people. |
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Rudy will get swift boated by the IAFF as well. I hope I can help blunt some of that... (http://rudysfirefighters.com/?p=67) |
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the life issue will be much tougher for Rudy. I don't see this issue sticking to him -- but stranger things have happened ... |
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The "swiftboating" tactic will backfire. However, it does take more than cleaning up NYC and being a mayor to get elected President... not that any of the other candidates are that much better all in all.
He could just be honest and direct and tell his detractors that there is no military requirement to be President. The whole damn point is that civilians run the military; not the other way around.
Great post, by the way. |
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...has strapped on some bulletproofing in his life. It's not just the North Vietnamese that shoot back when you interfere with them.
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