Swift Boat Veterans Target Obama

Just as they sought to destroy John Kerry in 2004, the founders of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group are aiming their guns at this season's presumptive Democratic presidential candidate. But unlike four years ago, when the Swifties spent millions to discredit Kerry, their hit on Barack Obama so far hasn't cost them a dime.

The opening assault came over the weekend in the form of a mass email to would-be sympathizers. "As liberal as Kerry was, America faces an even more liberal threat today: Barack Obama," wrote John O'Neill, a founder of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who co-authored the book "Unfit for Command," the attack (or smear) on Kerry's Vietnam War record.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[PioneerKing]

This year the swift boating is not working as well; as evidenced by the fact that the books are not selling very well.

[Ladyrantsalot]

Dick Nixon's chihuahua barks again.

[WorkingClass]

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. OH! I'm so scared. Don't these has been losers live in the real world. Do they have family, friends, neighbors, associates? How does it feel to know that EVERYBODY knows you are a liar. Their own kids are probably giving them the finger behind their back.

[LarBear]

Some of the most courageous in the Vietnam War are the Swift Boat veterans... To have their Name and Duty Station smeared by these unethical cowards must really sting... Far worse then spitting on returning Vets is the behavior (Behavior - behave? ) make that the putrid slime and sleaze of these Political creatures....

Scuse me... Got to go cleanse my mind of a foul taste and odor...

LarBear...

[Redrover666]

Apparently you were reading the paper upside down.

The swift boaters attacked Kerry because Kerry returned from Nam and immediately began telling anyone who would listen that his comrades were murderers, cowards and slime.

Pretty odd how you missed that?!

[AzRealProgressive]

If it was all lies, why didn't John Kerry take them to court, if not for nothing else, to show the world who is telling the truth ???

[Destin]

IchLiebeMuschi got me to thinking about those fella's that run the Swift Boat Vets for Truth.

Rear Admiral Roy Francis Hoffmann is a member, but never served aboard a Swift Boat. However, he did serve aboard the USS Pirate, which the Swift Boats embellish a little bit.

"After a brief interruption of service, he reported in August 1950 while minesweeping off Wonson, Korea, PIRATE hit a mine and sank in five minutes. The Admiral received the Purple Heart Medal for wounds he received during that enemy action."
http://www.swiftvets.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Hoffmann

"However, Captain Cornelius E. McMullen, Commanding Officer of Pirate at the time of her sinking...."
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq103-1.htm

Notice how the Swifties keep referring to Hoffman as an Admiral while talking about the Pirate?? Leads one to believe he was in charge of it, he was NOT.

Plus, his saying he was in command of Kerry....

"In June 1969, RADM Hoffmann assumed command of USS SIERRA (AD-18), an Atlantic Fleet Destroyer Tender."
http://www.swiftvets.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Hoffmann

""Hoffmann acknowledged he had no first-hand knowledge to discredit Kerry's claims to valor and said that although Kerry was under his command, he really didn't know Kerry much personally." [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/7/04]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Hoffman

Kinda hard to command a swift boat outfit, while you are serving abord a Destroyer at sea isn't it??

[LarBear]

Having served 4 years aboard a Destroyer DD 747, I want to point out a Destroyer Tender is a repair ship for Destroyers... Most of their time is spent tied up doing Repairs...

http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/dafs/AD/ad18.html (Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships)

Sierra sailed for the Mediterranean on 30 June 1959 for her third deployment with the 6th Fleet and returned to Norfolk on 13 December to continue her work as destroyer tender. She was deployed to Guantanamo Bay from 23 October to 14 December 1961 to tend the reserve training ships recalled to active duty during the Lebanon Crisis. She entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 27 March 1962 for conversion under the FRAM II program. Sierra was out of the yard and able to resume her normal work routine on 15 September. From 1963 through December 1973, Sierra serviced ships of the fleet at ports along the east coast of the United States but, primarily, at Norfolk. On 5 January 1974, she moved to Charleston, S.C., and into September [1974] is still operating from that port. ( NO VIETNAM )

[Destin]

Thanks for all the information in regards to the USS Sierra, which Hoffman apparently commanded, starting in June 1968. The media doesn't point out, that Kerry didn't go for Swift Boat training until June 1968, and didn't arrive to command a Swift Boat in 'Nam until much later in 1968.

My using the USS Sierra timeline, was to show Admiral Hoffman's lie about having been in charge of Kerry's unit while Kerry was in command of a Swift boat.

This "Swift Vets" political pac will stop at nothing to smear and slander anyone they oppose. Even using, in Hoffman's case, total lies and propaganda.

How come none of the people who actually commanded Kerry, and who wrote his letters of nominations for his medals, are not members of the Swift Vets PAC??

[Destin]

These fake swift boat veterans need to be stripped of their citizenship and deported. Plus, it's a CRIME to knowingly impersonate an officer of the uniformed services of the United States of America.

If they never served on a swift boat, which NONE of the board members of this political pac has, then they can be brought up come charges of impersonating an officer.

[DaOne]

These not too swift veterans are an embarrassment to the nation as was the war they fought in.

[BlueZoo]

OMG! These guys are at it again? Thankfully, most of us are on to them and recognize their diatribes for what they are...trash!

[indyleftist]

So now the Swift Boat people are admitting that it was never about John Kerry's service.
It was about him being a democrat.

What a shameful bunch exploiting all the death and sadness that came out of the Vietnam war

[helonias]

Wasn't Jesus a liberal?

Are these men Christians?

[AzRealProgressive]

Jesus was born to a Jewish family. You might say that he was very conservative. No homoestuff, obey the lord., stuff like that. All those things that many liberals hate.

[littlenoodles]

"As liberal as Kerry was, America faces an even more liberal threat today: Barack Obama," wrote John O'Neill

So, the truth is out, and it's not that 'Kerry lied about his Vietnam record'. Apparently, John O'Neill wasn't really concerned about that (which makes sense, since it wasn't true). Nope. It was just those 'liberals' that needed to be stopped, by any means necessary.

This amounts to a confession of lies, at least about motivation, by the Swifties. I'll expect to see it on all news outlets tonight. Or not.

[ShamusNYC]

This time, it doesn't look like Pickens is going to fund them - as he might want a good relationship with a potential O administration.

So, the scumbags are on their own.

I really wish Kerry would sue these guys for slander.

[Sparhawk]

I've always thought...why didn't he?? Hmm...unless......

[mike53]

Maybe because they were telling the truth and Kerry knew it.

[cheshirecat831]

Yes, Pickens seems to be promoting himself with his commercials about his energy plans. Which seem more like the direction O rather than Mac And Cheese is going.

Talking Pez Heads
http://sfbaysailingpix.com/pez2008p1.htm

[sturgis54]

Thinking back to the disgraceful actions of the "Swift Boat Veterans'" attacks on John Kerry, am I wrong in remembering that their supposed cause for criticizing the candidate was their view of his military service? Didn't they frame themselves as former military comrades of Kerry's who tried to justify their slander of this decorated veteran by saying "we were there" and "don't agree with Kerry's side of the story?" While history now clearly shows the "Swift Boat" attack as pure political hackery, what possible excuse do these people have for attacking Obama? While their "expertise" on Kerry's service record supplied at least a tenuous rationale for their assassination of Kerry, they have no expertise or experience with Obama to provide even an arguable basis for criticizing him. These people are simply part of the well-oiled and handsomely compensated GOP/right wing attack machine that will say or do anything to stay in power. They should be publicly debunked as such by any reputable media (but, don't hold your breath).

[Clarabell]

You have a good post.

[Tropiholic]

not going to work this time, people have figured it out

[NotaBeliever]

I think we ALL knew this was coming. The opposition will call Senator Obama everything but white, and unless he's got more gumption than Senator Kerry had, the results will be the same. Another 4 years of The Same. The Whole Same and Nothing But the Same.

[Colmore]

Obama should hit back, asking "Why does John McCain insist on keeping his service records and medical records hidden? What is he hiding in them?" McCain has not suddenly turned into a mean little troll, he has always been one. How would he feel if someone maligned his adopted daughter with racial comments? Why is she kept out of camera range? Cindy McCain said "Americans are ready for a real family in the White house" You know, one where the husband cheated on his injured wife, left her with 3 kids and married his mistress? Or one where the wife steals from a charity to support her drug habit. Where the wife has a private plane, husband wears $560 shoes. Daughter is unemployed but has a $50,000.00 monthly limit on her credit card. Do you know any "regular families" like this? I sure don;t.