This from the people who have been screaming about "swiftboating"
From the Boston Globe...
An independent group's Swift Boat-style attack on John McCain's Vietnam record has hit the airwaves: a 30-second spot featuring Philip Butler describing his fellow POW as "unfit to lead" is now appearing on national cable.
"The prisoner of war experience is not a good prerequisite for president of the United States," Butler says in the ad, produced by Brave New PAC and Democracy for America. "He was known as a very volatile guy and he would blow up and go like a Roman candle. John McCain is not someone I would like to see with his finger near the red button."
The ad contains the opinion of one single person, backed by no evidence, just opinion. The Swift Vets' ads contained the observances of dozens upon dozens of men who served with John McCain, their observances were backed by facts.
The ad has Butler quoting from his piece at military.com from back in March. I'll quote some of the comments to the piece from people who posted at military.com...
Seems to me the bulk of the article is personal justification of how the author is more of a POW than McCain because he and others went through many of the same things but ... were there longer. A bit churlish in my opinion.
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I have a hard time figuring out the author's argument. A lot of it seems to be that John McCain somehow has stolen the spotlight from the hundreds of other Vietnam POW's. This strikes me as very strange.
He also criticises McCain for being too conservative, which is hilarious since so many conservatives consider him a closet liberal. His argument about "a bad temper" is totally ridiculous. I'm willing to bet that a number of Presidents have had poor tempers and worse mental problems. That argument seem to me like the one about how women can't become President because they are untrustworthy a week out of every month.
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The author sounds like he's actually jealous that McCain has attained fame and public admiration, and he hasn't....bizarre. Almost like a child, and sibling, throwing a tantrum because "he got a bigger piece of cake than I"... The "seniority" comment just reinforces the whole thing for me. Like he has to minimize McCain.
He also speaks of his relations with McCain from the academy, and in prison. Not current. People change, and it has been decades. I'm certainly not the same person I was 20 years ago.
This, by far, is the best response...
William S. Shaw: I served on the U.S.S. Forrestal, after the fire and after Senator McCain, I have read books on the man and I knew of his "antics" at Annapolis and had heard of his many violations of the honor code and of his hot temper also. I warned others on here about these things and I was variously called a neocon to a left wing fascist, probably by some who are reading this now and I'm sure some of you read those posts as well.
The difference between the author and I, is that I am going to vote for John McCain for President of the United States of America.
Why you might ask? Well, to put it as succinctly as I can, the alternative is too horrible to contemplate. The election of one candidate that is a racist and anti-American is beyond belief.
The election of a candidate that will say and do anything to get elected is also beyond belief.
The immediate withdrawal of American troops from the battle of Iraq, yes battle, would be to make of the sacrifices of those who died there, a mockery and would cause the untold death and suffering of more Americans in other battlefields by a buoyed and strengthened enemy, flush with their victory over the Americans, as they would perceive it. Then of course, there would be the untold deaths of Iraqis and their families that fought with us.
Our nation faces many problems, the twenty-seven percent of the national debt that is held my the Peoples Republic of China, our jobs off shored, runaway printing of our money and the subsequent devaluation on the world market, the uncontrolled energy prices and lack of searching for alternate energy sources, social security, medicare, taxation, spending on un-necessary pork projects, the mortgage collapse, the possible collapse of the banks, lack of funding of the military and on and on and on...
The things that the author said about John McCain are partially true, it's that eighth little pig that I was talking about, that he forgot. John McCain isn't using his P.O.W. status or that his son is a serving U.S. Marine or that he, McCain, survived the Forrestal fire and served his country honorably, while those that are his opposition didn't serve and one even considers a man, who openly curses the United States and hates those of another race, as his mentor.
So, I am voting for John McCain. Is he the best candidate? Well, he sure beats the other choices for honesty and ethics and his son is fighting as a U.S. Marine, so he will think twice about the global war on terror and he understand about torture and interrogation techniques and has stated his stance on torture and about the war.
We have many problems, why make them worse with those that are still running against Bush and won't realize, that President Bush is not the man running for the job any more.
Posted by Danny Carlton at September 16, 2008 7:46 AM