I hear people comparing Clinton Email Controversy to Swiftboaters of 2004: I say to you, it is not

[mylye2222]

comparable.

Why?

In 2004, when JK was under attack from SB smears, it was highly, heavily personnal. It was a character assasination, using one of his more painfull moments in life, the VN war, used in order to destabilize him and his message. It was a compoete designed distraction .It eventually became one, among other factors, of prominent factors of 2004 losses.

On the contrary, I see nothing going that personnal in Hillary-directed attacks. Sure RW overacts by calling what is a problem into a " mass scandal" but it is mainly political classic games. I see no labelling of Hillary as a " traitor" for instance.They are targeting her tenure at State and her way to practice politics. Not Hillary the woman. They go after Hillary Clinton the politician. I also dont see, coktrary to some claims, much "sexist" attacks such as " A woman can' t lead"

I give you the benefits of doubt, however, as contrary to 11 years ago, there is no KKKarl to orchestrate the smears.

PS: In 2004, the attacks against JK were based on manufactured lies, fake documents, and remember fake servicemen who claimed to have served along with JK while for some of them they never went to Vietnam at all.
Now, re. emails stories, it is clear that Hillary herself was surely aware it might hant a prospective bid. After all no one forced her to use private email. Although all of this is exagerated, she has a part of it, as she could have separated at least , for instance, personnal correspondance from pro one. Now are public her exanges with family, wich is clearly not our buisness.

Have a nice afternoon, DUers.

[still_one]

1. Perhaps not as bad, but their have been so many false stories from the MSM concerning the emails,

not the least of them was sources like the NY Times who falsely reported that criminal charges were being prepared, along with other intentional misinformation

[SonderWoman]

3. Exactly. Lies as HEADLINES! Retractions on page 76.

[mylye2222]

5. True spotted.

They discribed as "criminal charches" wgat is only administrative investigations.

[SonderWoman]

2. Didn't you claim Hillary was a BENGHAZI MURDERER!

[mylye2222]

4. No. I said she mishandled the gestion of that crisis.

Also nothing to compare.

[Metric System]

6. I think it's obvious that the Right is helping to shape the narrative of this story, particularly

through leaks to the press (Howdy Gowdy).

[AtomicKitten]

7. When they mocked Bernie marching with MLK here, that was swiftboating.

Example posted on DU: "So you marked with Martin Luther King. What do you want, a cookie?"

Reminiscent of the mocking of JK's military service/purple hearts, a Rovian effort to turn a strength into a weakness. Bernie has DECADES of fighting for civil rights and liberties and a record to match. It's all part of the Clinton campaign's effort to turn minorities against Bernie with their Kanye-inspired claim that Bernie doesn't care about black/brown people.

[mylye2222]

8. True, sure it is.

[AtomicKitten]

21. Another difference as pointed out downthread is she actually did what she is accused of, setting

... up a private server in her home. She actually did send and receive hundreds of emails with classified material and two top secret missives did pass over her unsecured server, and this is only what they've found so far. If they are able to retrieve data that has been wiped from her hard drive, that may add further fuel to the fire.

The swift-boating of John Kerry was based on lies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-wrote-classified-e-mails-sent-using-private-server/2015/09/01/5d456616-50bd-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html

[Metric System]

10. As I recall, that was a reaction from some African-Americans due to Sanders supporters displaying

their bullying behavior on Twitter. As in, WHY AREN'T YOU SUPPORTING BERNIE SANDERS?!? HE MARCHED WITH MLK! YOU SHOULD BE MORE GRATEFUL!!!

[upaloopa]

9. The State Department said Hillary did nothing wrong.

In hind site you say she could have done something different. That thought as well as the labeling emails classified after the fact and saying Clinton mishandled classified documents is swift boating in my opinion,

[mylye2222]

11. No it is not.

I say she mishandled dealing with Benghazi attack aftermath. She was wrong pretending it was a protest turning to terror attack, as kf it was kind of improvized, when Embassy in Libyq clearly recieved terror threats.
Secondly I am talking about lack of transparency. Not about classified documents.

But please, proceed.

[Metric System]

15. She did not PRETEND it was a protest turned to terror attack. That was the administration's line

when the incident first happened, before details emerged.

[upaloopa]

20. We all have our opinions but not our own truth.

[Motown_Johnny]

12. They really should not be over using that rebuttal.

What the GOP will do with Sniper Gate will make Swiftboating look like a ticker tape parade.

If she is our nominee, you know damn well it is coming. The attack ads almost write themselves. And with only about 1 in 3 Americans believing that she is trustworthy she has no way to defend herself against them.

[Metric System]

16. Wait until they get done with Sanders!

[frylock]

23. Because SOSHULISM!!!

[Metric System]

24. Among other things. They'll paint him as weak on crime, terrorism, etc. Think Dukakis.

[frylock]

26. What has tough on terrorism done for us again?

We know what tough on crime has done to the black communities. And, no. You think Dukakis, or Mondale, or whatever Ghost of Elections Past scares the ever loving shit out of you. I, like many others, are done voting out of fear.

[Metric System]

34. I'm not defending that or even saying Sanders is weak on these issues. My response was about

Republicans doing to him what they've done to so many others.

[Motown_Johnny]

32. For what exactly?

Being a Democratic Socialist? He has been running on that for decades, and winning.

I honestly see no line of attack that is anywhere near as bad as Sniper gate.

Besides that, more Americans think he is trustworthy than untrustworthy. Unlike Hillary where the opposite is true. When people trust you it is possible to defend yourself from smears. When they don't it isn't.

[Maedhros]

13. The big difference is that, in Kerry's case, the Swiftboaters told blatant lies.

In Hillary's case, she actually did what they say she did - set up a personal server for official communications. Consensus opinion is that this was a bad idea.

The argument is over whether the badness of the idea rises to the level of a crime.

[mylye2222]

14. Perfectly explained.

That what I was trying to say.. Ah, being an ESL person on a EFL board! Lol.

[Maedhros]

17. Well, you are doing far better posting in English than I would posting in your language.

[MBS]

19. nice (and accurate) summary- thanks. n/t

[LettuceSea]

18. Not accepting responsibility is an unfortunate theme in our party

IMO, when things don't go our way, we like to make excuses (loudly) and assess blame on others. Kind of a wuss way of responding to adversity.

[Rstrstx]

22. Hmm, let's see, a shadowy smear campaign, a Bush running for President....

Nope, no similarities here whatsoever. Nothing to see here folks, move along please, make way for the Fox News anchor - thank you.

[HappyPlace]

25. It's a convenient way to explain away a very inconvenient truth.

Hillary screwed up, she even admitted as much.

JK, on the other hand, did nothing to earn that bullshit.

K/R

[mylye2222]

28. Yep. what is a fact is that

Hillary often fled responsability during Stqte tenure..

[MBS]

30. yup, that's it in a nutshell. n/t

[mylye2222]

31. Thank you my friend.

[procon]

27. There's no daylight between Hillary as a woman and a politician.

They are inseparable halves of the whole person. Republicans already have such a bad rep for attacking women, and a very long history of targeting HRC in particular, they don't even need to mention her gender to achieve the same results in the minds of their misogynistic base.

Politically, the rightwing smear machine has been actively trying to paint Clinton as a "traitor" for years; if you would have Googled it, there are over 465,000 hits on that topic. Your other allegations are all just as easily refuted, so tell me again how this attack isn't Swiftboating?

[mylye2222]

29. Well , with HRC:

Does RW uses false documents, false testimonies and actors to distort her story? No.

[procon]

33. O.M.G.

You forgot the thingy.

[pansypoo53219]

35. THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA is drip drip drip Goring clinton. JUST like they did kerry. AND DEAN. do not

tell me, they are not, when i see it EVERY DAY! THEY WANT NEW. SQUIRREL!!!