Before We Start Throwing 'Swiftboating' Around...

3 years ago

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Let's remember what the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did in 2004 against John Kerry:

Today we've had a few posts here on PM about Wesley Clark's statement about McCain, McCain's reaction and Obama's reaction to McCain and Clark. In the comments, from CNN's Rick Sanchez and various newsie readers on MSNBC I'm seeing SWIFTBOATING!!! all over the place.

Please do note that I do NOT agree with with what Wes Clark said or the John Avarosis comments on his AmericaBlog mentioned by Politico's Ben Smith today. Obama was correct in distancing himself from Clark even though the former General is being called a surrogate or campaign representative despite being a stalwart Clinton supporter just weeks ago.

I'm going to try very hard to avoid using "swiftboat" to describe any and all attacks from one campaign or the other just like I have tried very hard to avoid using Nazi and Facist. What Clark and Avarosis said are not swiftboating. They are just ill-considered remarks that don't do the candidate any favors. We tend to quickly forget the forcefulness some words had just a short time ago...

Filed Under: Barack Obama, John McCain, 2008 President

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