What does it mean to be "swiftboated"?

I know it has something to do with John Kerry being on a Swiftboat, but I didn't exactly understand how this became a proverb. Kerry was "swiftboated". How so? Can anyone explain?

And it was never properly put down as the bullshit it was.

There was some BS about him not earning his Purple Hearts too. A simply disgusting display by his fellow vets.

situation that he claimed John Kerry lied about to get his ... so, if Kerry lied to get his medal, this guy accepted his own medal under false pretenses ...

Or was is it something about receiving an injury while trying to run away?
I think my dad actually said something like that: John Kerry hit his head while he turned his boat around to run away from a firefight.
:shrug:

as was the idea that his injury was milder than a paper cut ...

during the election which tells me a lot about Kerry. A crew that will stand for their captain or a bunch of REMFs who will back stab another vet - tough choice.

while throwing tons of dirty money into the MSN to make sure the sheeple believe the lies.

Swiftboat Veterans for truth (ha!) were the ones who made the accusations against Kerry.

sometimes they make up outright lies.

"Swift boat veterans for truth" and they criticized Kerry, and Kerry took too long to respond to them, and this hurt Kerry in the polls, even though it was all B.S., and may have been a factor in the result that Kerry isn't in the White House right now.

They turned his strong point, his service in the military, into weakness by repeatedly lying about his military service. To be swiftboated is to be attacked and lied about politically; depending on context it could include elements of a non-campaign source doing the attacking, or attacking a strong point and ruining it.

Generally used defensively, it seems. "They are trying to smear and swift-boat me but I know the American people are smart enough to see through such sleazy tactics."

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

But were you asleep four years ago?

For all we know Mr. Smith may have been 14 four years ago. If they want to learn we should endeavor to teach no?

:eyes: :eyes:

:rofl: :rofl:

Just so unpleasantly snide and superior, and what good does that do?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Lie

It involves telling a lie so big, or repeating it so often, that people believe it.

Like that John Kerry didn't serve bravely in Vietnam, or that Obama's inexperienced.

No matter who it is.

to me, anyway. Smearing with half-truths, lies by omission, and outright falsehoods.

Things that have been happening a lot on this board these days. Against all of our candidates.

I am appalled by those here who would use the anti-democratic Politico, Drudge and ABC Blogspot, etc. as honest news sources. The very same sources that have been rightly viewed with suspicion in the past are now taken at face value.

Get a grip, people. The corporate media and political gossip mongers are not your friends. Quit quoting their narratives as gospel truth. They led the negative narrative to bring down Al Gore and John Kerry and they are doing the same during the Democratic primary.

(and props, btw to Mcain for being the ONLY repub to repudiate their tactics)

The scary thing is that they are alive and well and ready for action.

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=222304

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiftboating

to justify everything, and claiming any opposition was not supporting the troops, blah, blah, blah

and in massive abundance, I actually worry what extent will they go to, i think it will be a whole new level of sewer.

and not the least of which will be their continuing falsehoods about Barack being some closet Muslim extremist

I've always maintained it wont be the black thing thats the problem it will be the islamic thing they will go after. Its already beginning to emerge as a factor.

With our kids dying out here in Iraq, and afghanistan, they only have to link it subtly ala 9/11 and Saddam Hussein and they'll have done the deed.

After all that whole Saddam and 9/11 thing is still widely believed by a mass % of the population.

The Repukes will be ready let loose on any of them, once the nomination's locked down.

...Kerry went to Vietnam and risked his life for his country, while Bush stayed safely at home, often not even showing up for the National Guard service in Texas he had volunteered to do.

And yet, here comes this group that says that Kerry didn't deserve his medals (esp. purple hearts), and only received them because of his family connections. Moreover, they said he blew it all away for DARING to speak out about the War when he returned, although you would think someone who actually saw combat would be more justified in speaking out than anybody. The strategy morphed into rumors that spread all across the country, until my own grandmother was telling us about a friend of hers who told her in all seriousness--"John Kerry shot himself in the foot so he could receive a medal and come home, didn't he?"

Throughout it all Bush claimed that 'Swiftboat Veterans For Truth"--most of whom were later proven to be opportunists who didn't serve with Kerry at all--were a seperate entity from his campaign for re-election. And yet, the greasy handprints of Karl Rove were all over this so-called "independent organization," and they got enough press to keep the mudslinging flying...

...and you know the rest.

Else Kerry would be sitting in the White House right now.

It has something to do with attacking the strengths of the candidate, too. Kerry had served in combat, and Bush hadn't, yet it was Bush who was blathering on at the time about terra and the military and on and on. Those assholes actually managed to turn to their advantage what should have been their greatest disadvantage.

One of the important things to remember in this is that every single claim made by the Swiftboat Liars (i.e., the self-proclaimed "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth") that could be independently verified was shown to be false. NONE of it checked out, but the group worked on the principle that, as Mark Twain put it, "a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on".

They also played heavily on conservative sentiment that we only "lost" the Vietnam war because of liberals stabbing "us" in the back, not because the "best and brightest" running our foreign policy had placed us in an untenable position.

Part of the tragedy is that the Kerry campaign shouldn't have been caught as flat-footed as they were by the swifties. The lefty blogosphere and people here at DU were sounding the alarms as the swifites started testing out their message online, and tried to warn the Kerry campaign and offered counterpoints and were largely ignored. The Swifties telegraphed their punches, but Kerry's people didn't notice until it was much too late. The rest is history.

Who are you trying to kid?

Someone wants a better understanding of the term "swiftboated".