Honesty during campaigns:                                            Back

Campaign Promises:   Misleading statements during this campaign

This has been one of the dirtiest s I can remember. I'm tired of all of the negative advertising, let's get down to the issues.

One way you can tell if the ad. your watching is from the candidate or a PAC (Political Action Committee) is that the candidate will say something like. "I'm George Bush/John Kerry & I approve this message." PAC's have the right to make their point but you, if you intend to vote, have the responsibility to verify their claims. Don't take their word for anything and that goes for the candidates too.

During the Republican primaries in 2000 ads come out questioning John McCain's military record. After a few weeks & finding out through polls that the ads actually helping McCain through a backlash, George Bush denounced those ads & they were pulled.

Al Gore was the recipient of the next negative ad campaign. Ads claiming that he wasn't honest when he said he had gone to Texas with the director of FEMA. It wasn't explained that maybe he had made a mistake. I have mentioned this earlier, but I'll mention it again. Al Gore had gone many places with the director during his eight years as Vice President & had been to Texas on this occasion with the deputy director. According to the ad he was a man who couldn't be trusted (Ha!) and this from a group that supports George Bush. They also attacked his military record.

Now it's John Kerry's turn. A group calling themselves "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" has come out against John Kerry's war record. Are they telling the truth? I don't know but let's look at some facts. First John E. O'Neill co-author of the book, under pressure on Crossfire admitted that he never met Kerry in Vietnam as Kerry had left before O'Neill got there. 250 Swift Boat members signed a letter. Do you really believe that that many men would have met a person in the conditions that were Vietnam at that time. All the men who served on his boat have praised his actions.

8/22/04 In their (Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) latest ad they deceive by omission. They show parts of Kerry's testimony before congress about atrocities during the Vietnam War without showing his preamble where he states that his is reading from statements of other veterans who had asked him to present the information to the committee. He never said he saw all of these things personally. As I said before there were atrocities committed in Viet Nam but they happen in all wars, look at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Andersonville during the Civil War. The Bataan Death March in World War II & have we forgotten My Lai or Trang Bang in Viet Nam. What Kerry was trying to do was end a war that had the whole country at war with ourselves. Remember Kent State, The Democratic National Convention, the crowds of demonstrators in Washington, Boston, or San Francisco. Time will heal Viet Nam but for now let's just stop the dirty campaigning.

The other  co-author is Jerome Corsi just click on his name to see some of the things he said. Like  CORSI: "So this is what the last days of the Catholic Church are going to look like. Buggering boys undermines the moral base and the lawyers rip the gold off the Vatican altars. We may get one more Pope, when this senile one dies, but that's probably about it." Is this the kind of man you want to listen to?

8/19/04  Larry Thurlow's Military records were inspected by the Washington Post under the (freedom of information Act) (Larry Thurlow is one of the most vocal critics of John Kerry) & guess what?  He also received a  Bronze Star for his actions during the same event (If they weren't in a combat situation, Why the medals?) he claims never happened. Read this. He now claims that John Kerry wrote the post action report, & that he never read it, but he accepted the award and never questioned what was in the report apparently none of the veterans of the action did. The Washington Post could find no information on who wrote the report but say that some of the information in the report took place during the time when Kerry's boat was down stream & John couldn't have known just what went on during that time. John Kerry denies writing that report. One of the largest contributors to the swift boat veterans is Bob Perry a huge contributor to the George Bush Campaign.

Shortly after the ad by the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" was aired "Move on.org." released an ad saying that since George Bush had used political connections to get out of the war he shouldn't support attacks against John Kerry, or something on that order. John Kerry quickly denounces that ad, saying that there was no reason to doubt Bush military record and Move On.org should pull the ad.. George Bush, though he says that he disapproves of all soft money ads, still hasn't denounced that ad. I guess he doesn't want to offend his friends.

I said earlier that the 527s have a right to say what they think but that we should verify the information we receive from them. Bush disapproves of what they say for good reason. A lot of information about his record on the environment etc. is getting to the electorate. Information that the campaigns can't possibly get to during a presidential campaign. The candidates have to endorse or denounce the ads. Not condemn them all. Kerry is willing to denounce an ad that he feels is false, why won't George Bush?

I do have one question. How is it possible that so many men remember John Kerry during the Vietnam war yet not one person can remember George Bush during his stint with the Alabama National Guard?

I seem to recall that after Bill Clinton took office that the Republicans started a long, costly investigation into a land deal called "Whitewater" an investigation that cost millions & could find nothing against the Clinton's. It did however distract from other important things that could have been accomplished during that time. Then when Vince Foster, a longtime friend of the Clintons, committed suicide, Kenneth Starr. expanded his investigation to include that and again no indictments. The only thing these investigations gained was Republican propaganda and that at the expense of the American taxpayer.

Doesn't it seem funny that anytime anyone runs against or disagrees with George Bush, something from their past comes out. Think about it. Over and above the mud thrown on Gore, Kerry & McCain there was the leak, from the most secretive administration in the history of our country, of the Burger investigation. The leak to Robert Novak that Joe Wilson's wife was a C.I.A. operative. I'm sure there are more. After all they leaked the fact that we had broken an al-Qa'ida code. & the name of an al-Qa'ida operative, who was caught in Pakistan, during an ongoing investigation.

As I said earlier PAC's have the right to make their point but you, if you intend to vote, have the responsibility to verify their claims. Don't take their word for anything.

I've noticed that George Bush's "I'm George Bush & I approve this message." ads are way more negative then John Kerry's. Watch the ads & see who is talking about the issues & who is talking against their opponent.

I guess that the Republican Party learned an important lesson from their false ads against Michael Dukakis who as Governor of Massachusetts signed a weekend furlough for a convict named Willy Horton, you know the rest, but what you don't know is that under Massachusetts law he (Michael Dukakis) had very little choice. So things just keep "rollin' along."

8/20/04 The New York Times ran a chart showing a possible link from the Bush campaign to the Swift Boat Veterans. One that, I must say, seems more credible to me then the connection of Saddam Hussein to al-Qu'ida.

8/21/04 Amazing, CNN reports that a volunteer adviser has quit President Bush's re-election campaign. Retired Air Force Col. Ken Cordier had appeared in an ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. (Could the campaign be cleaning house because John Kerry has urged the Federal Election Commission to cite the group, the Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee for violating federal election laws?) It's hard for me to believe that they didn't realize he was in the ad till now. Campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said in a written statement issued Saturday night. "Col. Cordier did not inform the campaign of his involvement in the advertisement being run by a 527 organization," They have to be watching the ads. Would you not notice if a friend or co-worker appeared on television?

In their latest ad. they charge Kerry with accusing the Vietnam veterans of atrocities & site his testimony in front of congress but they neglect to add his preface, in which he said he was reporting what others said at a Vietnam veterans conference.   Read this article by CNN

Now can you really trust a president who: breaks his promises, gives misinformation to the people of the country, allows classified information to be leaked to the press & uses dirty politics to get elected?  "I don't think so."

I located this while working on the administration. White House senior adviser Karl Rove acknowledges that, in 1970, he used a false identity to gain entry to the campaign offices of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon, who was running for state treasurer. Once inside, Rove swiped some letterhead stationery and sent out 1,000 bogus invitations to the opening of the candidate's headquarters promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing." "It was a youthful prank at the age of 19 and I regret it," Rove says. That was, possibly, the first of a lot of dirty campaign tricks that he has used over the years. Karl Rove has been with George Bush since 1999 & had formally worked for George Bush Sr. Karl Rove is widely known in political circles as a shrewd and conniving man who will do anything to win. I guess he is still at it.

9/01/04: Bob Dole to Larry King & John McCain "John & I have a lot in common we were both Bushwacked." He was speaking about the dirty political campaigns that George Bush uses.

I've been hearing a lot lately about how John Kerry voted against weapons systems. What I don't hear is how Dick Chaney tried to eliminate some of those same systems when he was Secretary of Defense.

You have to remember that these weapons didn't all come to the floor of the senate at the same time. (An impression the republicans would like you to believe.) Some of the Systems were considered obsolete before they even came on line. Now picture yourself as a senator who has to make a decision on which systems to vote for. You decide that you like the B-1 Bomber but the vote is for the B-14 bomber so what do you do. I'd vote against the B-14 and wait for the B 1 to come to the floor. Now the B-14 is voted into production & up comes the vote for the B-1 but we already have a B-14 so it's a little redundant to have more then one bomber in the fleet so do you vote for another bomber? I wouldn't. So now I've voted against both of the new bombers even though I wanted the B-1. You have to remember that that's one of the reasons Dick Chaney tried to eliminate some of the redundant systems. Now if they were redundant why  were they voted in? Pork! I'm the senator from Michigan & Lockheed Martin is in my district and they have the contract if it passes. Don't I pull strings, call up favors and do anything I can to bring those jobs to my state? So what if we overspend on defense, American can always use more bombers & since I brought jobs to my state I have increased my political base.

If you don't know all the facts maybe you should do some research. I mentioned before in many places on this site how you can be deceived by politicians & Republicans are the best used car salesmen in the world but don't trust the Democrats either, find out the facts.

10/3/04 George Bush has been complaining that John Kerry has tried to cut spending on antiterrorism & crime prevention Read this: CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) -- Ninety-five federal prosecutors nationwide are accepting an offer of early retirement, taking with them a wealth of experience that in one office adds up to 80 years. The Justice Department had hoped as many as 600 people would agree to retire, said Mary Beth Buchanan, who heads the executive office. Officials will consider whether to re-offer the program later, she said.

During the Gore/Bush debate in 2000 George Bush implied that Gore had claimed he had invented the internet. What Gore had said is that he had helped develop it. Which, by the way, he had. He had chaired a committee in the Senate to develop regulations controlling its implementation. It wasn't an actual lie but misleading is close.

Back when Ronald Reagan, the patron saint of contemporary conservatives, was California's governor, convicted and imprisoned criminals, while on state-sanctioned 72-hour furloughs, murdered a Los Angeles police officer and murdered a woman in Orange County.

That reality in no way inhibited 1988 Republican presidential candidate George H. W. Bush, who was then Reagan's vice president, from condemning Democrat Michael Dukakis for having been Massachusetts' governor when convicted murderer Willie Horton, on a state-sanctioned weekend pass, raped a woman in Maryland and stabbed her companion.

Republicans, according to George H. W. Bush, "don't let murderers out on vacation to terrorize innocent people. ... Dukakis owes the people an explanation of why he supported this outrageous program."

The above thanks to Mark Shields of CNN  the facts are correct and the Republican tactics are the same.

12/2/04 (Trenton Times) Concord N. H.-- President Bush's former New England campaign chairman was indicted yesterday on charges he took part in the jamming of the Democrats' get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002.

In 2002, six phone lines run by the Democrats & the Manchester firefighters union were tied up for 1 1/2 hours by 888 computer-generated hang-up calls. Federal prosecutors said James Tobin and other Republicans hired a company to make the calls to disrupt the get-out-the-vote efforts.

Tobin (44) was charged with conspiracy to commit telephone harassment & aiding and abetting. He could face up to five years in prison. I'm tired of the Republicans complaining about the dishonest Democrats.