REVEALING MOMENT ON FRONTLINE
Flipping away from the Yankees-Red Sox game during the commercials, I caught a snippet of the Frontline hagiography of John Kerry. I caught what struck me as a revealing comment, from John Kerry, just before the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The Weekly Standard has the quote as well:
"Are we ready for the changes this war will bring?" Kerry asked then. "Changes in sons and daughters who return from combat never the same. . . . Are we ready for another generation of amputees, paraplegics, burn victims?" "There is a rush to war here," Kerry went on. The United States was acting "with more bravado than patience." His view of intervention was grim. "It sounds like we are risking war for pride," he continued, "not vital interests!"
Is it any surprise that the antiwar movement is supporting John Kerry, despite his pledges to "finish the job" in Iraq and increase military spending?
Every military action, except for the Bill Clinton style of only using tomahawks and high-altitude bombing, runs the risk of "amputees, paraplegics, burn victims." And no military action comes with a deadline. The U.S. waited three weeks before bombing the Taliban. There is always more time for diplomacy, if you are willing to believe your opponent might budge.
Why do I suspect that an America under President Kerry would be eternally patient, always willing to give sanctions a little more time, always willing to wait to see if the situation improves or if a rogue state responds to one more diplomatic overture?
When one looks at Kerry's comments from the Gulf War, one recognizes that this man would never invade another country, no matter how much some contended there was a threat. In fact, it's hard to imagine Kerry approving the use of ground forces in combat anywhere in the world. Too much risk of burn victims and "sons and daughters who return from combat never the same."
He truly does see every U.S. military action through the lens of Vietnam.
NOTE: This was the only part of the Frontline documentary that comes close to criticizing Kerry. The remainder of the piece was anti-Bush.
NO CLINTON HELP FOR KERRY?
From the New York Post:
Former President Bill Clinton's slow recovery from heart surgery may prevent him from joining John Kerry on the campaign trail, Democratic officials say.
Five weeks after undergoing quadruple-bypass surgery, Clinton is said to be eager to hit the road for Kerry, but worries from both his doctors and his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, may keep him on the shelf.
One senior Democratic official who recently saw the former commander-in-chief said he looked "wan."
Clinton told that official to begin planning a couple of Kerry events for him to attend toward the end of the campaign, but another Democrat who spoke to Clinton recently said that might be "wishful thinking."
Hillary doesn't want Bill exerting himself to help Kerry, huh? Hmmmm.
NOTE: It has long be known that the Clintons and the Clintonistas on the Kerry campaign do NOT want Kerry to win. They are looking forward to a 2008 run for Hillary.
MORE ON SINCLAIR... FROM CBS!
CBS News is covering Sinclair Broadcasting's decision to show a documentary that's very tough on Kerry. They title their report "Broadcast Broadside" and call the documentary an "extended attack ad."
"Picture what would happen if a liberal station preempted its regular schedule to to show "Fahrenheit 9/11," asks correspondent Jim Axelrod.
Yeah. Or imagine a liberal network using fake documents, that its own experts determined were a hoax, to smear the president! And imagine that network insists, in the face of all evidence, that the memos are true, and that all of its critics are "partisan political operatives"! And imagine that network's anchor, even after admitting that the source of the documents, that he had insisted was unimpeachable, was a longtime critic of Bush with a nutty story about getting the memos passed to him at a horse show, said he still didn't think the memos were fake!
Imagine a network insisting that "fake but accurate" was an appropriate standard!
Axelrod also insists that "bias is in the eye of the beholder." What a convenient cop-out.
Of course, this comparison isn't perfect. Show me where "Stolen Honor" gets its facts wrong, and then it will be comparable. Really, in light of this, the right should get one fake-memo cheap shot on John Kerry, and then the fight will be even.
UPDATE: From Instapundit:
What, exactly, is untrue about this film? To demonstrate that it's a "rank smear," he needs to point to some fairly serious lies. But I don't think he has — they're assumed, not proven, or even identified. As for his CBS example, well, CBS has already done enough, as have quite a few media outfits. They tried to influence the election on the public airwaves, after all.
Given the media's extensive efforts to deliver its 15% for Kerry, it's funny that this is suddenly so outrageous.
I think this whole thing illustrates that campaign finance "reform" is a terrible disaster. First, it hasn't cleaned things up — it's just produced a sub rosa battle of rich guys and interest groups. Second, it's coarsened the political dialogue even further, since candidates have some incentive to play nice, but independent groups don't. Third, controversies like these are undermining free speech. And, finally, all of this is hitting in wartime, when we don't need this kind of nastiness, etc.
McCain, Feingold, and the many editorialists who supported this bill — and President Bush, who signed it in the mistaken belief that the courts would overturn it, and the Supreme Court, which wrongly upheld it — all ought to admit their error. Will they?
Another reader emails:
Sundance channel aired the "Concert for Change," a six-hour anti-Bush concert. Are the free-speech-for-me-but-not-for-thee types open to the idea of a six-hour Ted Nugent jam fest?
I'm cool with it.
STILL MORE: Reader Ed Paul, who unlike me is watching PBS tonight, emails:
I assume that if The Sinclair Kerry special is an illegal contribution in kind the the Kerry hagiography on PBS tonight will also be illegal. Jeese, they have one of his crew members telling the Silver Star story and NOT one word about the Swift Boat Veterans.
Sounds like that one-way ratchet.
NOTE: If you cannot believe a CBS report that something is unfair, who can you believe.
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