Why Kerry May Have Been Right--Latest Post on LUTD

[Dr Ron]

Posted on LUTD.

Thanks to karynnj in posting the quote from Tour of Duty on another thread--as I'm at the office I don't have my copy handy for quoting.

Why Kerry May Have Been Right In Not Signing Form 180 Earlier
7 June 2005

The review of John Kerry's military records demonstrated that the charges of the Swift Boat Liars were not true. The records reviewed following the signing of the Form 180 were also found to be the same as those which Kerry released during the campaign and had posted on line.

This has raised questions as to why Kerry didn't just sign the Form 180 earlier. One reason given by Kerry was that, "The call for me to sign a 180 form came from the same partisan operatives who were lying about my record on a daily basis on the Web and in the right-wing media. Even though the media was discrediting them, they continued to lie. I felt strongly that we shouldn't kowtow to them and their attempts to drag their lies out."

The media coverage shows Kerry may have been right in not kowtowing to them. Although the records show that the charges by the Swift Boat Liars were untrue, we have yet to see any admission of this from the right. O'Neill said yesterday that he would be disappointed if Kerry's files do not contain new information but told that Boston Globe that, ''I would still have the same beliefs expressed in my book." So much for their earlier claims that signing the Form 180 would be what determines the truth.

There were bound to be consequences to signing a form which allows those who have been proven to be distorting the truth to go through records. It was inevitable they would find something new to spin. So far it has turned out to be Kerry's grades at Yale.

The media initially reported that Kerry and Bush's grades were identical, and by this afternoon the right wing media is now claiming that Kerry's grades were worse than Bush. They even make a point that one of his better grades was in French. How clever of them. They don't point out the improvement seen in Kerry's grades following the freshman year or the other activities Kerry was involved in which affected his grades. Ultimately Kerry showed his intellectual abilities during his years in public life, which mean far more than freshman college grades.

Kerry never claimed to have been a great student. In Tour of Duty he is quoted as saying, "I was a capable student, but not a very dedicated one." He also says while talking about his favorite teacher, "Gaddis was a great, great lecturer," Kerry attested. "The Lectures were all energy and knowledge. I confess that I was .... I don't know, maybe I suffered from attention-deficit disorder... never really paying full attention in (any other) class. I just had so many extracurricular things going on."

The right wing noise machine is using the grades to distract from the real story that the records verify Kerry's account of his military service. There is no mention of how John Kerry has proven his intellectual superiority over George Bush in their accomplishments after leaving school. There is also no mention of George Bush's failure to release his military records.

We see the double standard of the right wing media in play. When the memos presented by Dan Rather were found to be of questionable legitimacy, they dropped the story despite evidence that the content of the memos, if not the memos themselves, were correct with regards to Bush's National Guard record. In contrast, I bet that we have not heard the last of the Swift Boat Lies.

Related Stories:
Kerry's Records Released Disputing Attacks of Swift Boat Liars

Comments on Kos's use of the release to continue his attacks on Kerry discussed in Senator Kennedy, Please Do Not Support The Kerry Bashers

[Dr Ron]

1. Link

I should add that the above post is at
http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=1030

[Pirate Smile]

2. This should be sent out for use when people try to make an untrue

point that Kerry said he had good grades/smart/intellectual/etc. (which he didn't but they act like he did).

[karynnj]

3. Need to differentiate between good grades - which he didn't claim,

and being intellectual and smart which I don't think he (or any other smart person I know) ever claimed to be - others have said it and although both are subjective, a good case could be made for him being both.

I know many intellectual people with mediocre grades and many non-intellectual people with top grades. In my children's school, one top student (in top 10 at school of over 400) when asked favorite book she ever read that was not for school, said she had not read one since Junior high. Another student I knew barely kept a "B" average (given grade inflation much lower than Kerry's) but was very widely read in subjects that interested her and spent much of her free time in her HS senior year creating an every other month alternative (vaguely feminist) zine with two friends. The former is a "perfect student", but the latter might be more intellectual.

[TayTay]

5. This is true.

One of the critiques of national educational testing standards (like No Child Left Behind) is that they create students that are not thinking critically. These students have been taught to parrot back what was tough to them and not to think for themselves. America needs innovative and creative thinkers, not robots.

This is actually a major problem for industry. The best thing you can do for a kid (or anyone, actually in terms of intellectual growth) is challenge them. Ask them to stand and defend their arguments. Make them give you the reasons WHY they think the way they do and then ask them to imagine different scenarios in which alternative plans, thoughts and creative patterns are needed. This is real intelligence. (Makes for a nice wrinkly brain. Full of nice new neurons connecting to places they have never been before.)

You know, I really hope that Al Franken has John Kerry on his show soon. They are friends and the ribbing that Franken (a straight A student) could give Kerry would be pretty good. (And good natured, as well.)

[LittleClarkie]

4. Amazing isn't it. If something is said about Dean

he climbs all over himself to debunk it, regardless. If something is said about Kerry, he climbs all over himself to jump all over Kerry. Partisan hack.

[whometense]

6. Atrios pushes back

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_06_05_atrios_archive.html#111819607885198316

...The point is that as long as our liberal media is willing to run unsubstantiated bullshit and accusations from the right nonstop, it's silly to imagine that anything can innoculate us against it. That isn't to say there's good strategy and bad strategy in the face of it, but in this particular case I think Kerry's actions may have been correct. At least, I think it's wrong to believe that had he signed the release previously it would have had any noticeable effect on the Chris Matthews election narrative.

-Atrios 9:54 PM