re: #62 Barefoot Grin

I was just watching a highlight reel of “Trump through the years” with Chris Matthews on MSNBC. He said in 2004, “I couldn’t believe it; with the swift-boaters and everything the Republicans are stripping away Kerry’s heroism and they’ve almost made Bush seem like the hero, and the Democrats won’t even respond.” I think he picked up some lessons there.

Well, IIRC, Kerry and the Democrats DID respond, and the national media pretty much tossed everything back on the MBF, and what-if’ed and whattabout’ed and gave the Swift Boat liars the benefit of the doubt on virtually everything (I recall some big hoo-ha about “Kerry’s hat” somehow “proving” that everything he said about his service in Vietnam was a lie: the most fearful bullshit, to be sure, but the SBVT were taken near-absolutely seriously, Kerry’s denial were lucky to get a mention).

I’ve always thought the Swiftboating of John Kerry was the last gasp of Vietnam-War politics: that Kerry became a prominent anti-war activist after his service (and specifically as a leader of anti-war veterans) was, I think, the main thing that sparked the big smear campaign against him: if he had been a pro-war cheerleader after Vietnam, he still might have gotten ratfucked by the GOP in ‘04, but I don’t think the charges would have had the same “righteous” outrage….