Kerry defends Obama on Israel and says Republicans make stuff up.

[karynnj]

"The Republicans have a habit of not telling a lot of truth in presidential campaigns," he said, an obvious reference to his 2004 run for the White House, when conservatives assailed his Vietnam War service with charges contradicted by official US Defense Department records.

"The Republicans are making everything up. They make everything up. That doesn't mean that it's a reality," Kerry told AFP when asked about Republican assaults on Obama's handling of relations with Israel.
<snip>
Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Obama's September speech opposing the Palestinian effort to gain UN membership "was about as affirmative a speech as has ever been made about America's relationship with Israel."

Republicans have stepped up charges that Obama has shortchanged Israel's security by not doing enough to halt Iran's suspect nuclear program and pushing the staunch US ally too hard to return to peace talks with the Palestinians.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i5gbW0O7CgnuBc_fNso_TCGxoqNw?docId=CNG.7ecd231f6d2b64a4334ecaf3076dae5a.b01




In the article, it speaks of the ambassador to Belguim, who Romney wants fired for antisemitism. The Ambassador, who is Jewish, made the distinction between real antisemitism and disagreement with Israel. Other than that, they are more hawkish on Iran and think that Obama should do support what the RW Netanyahu wants even though it is counterproductive and against the US policy of several administrations.

One interesting note. I have watched the AP and APF over the last several years on how they refer to the swiftboat liars. For years, they always had some "even handed" comment - like saying they "questioned" his service - and occasionally worse - effectively searing him again. This could be one journalist, but it would be great if it is a sign that the media might start to call blatant lies what they are - as they do here when they speak of the liars contradicting the official record, rather than "Kerry's version.

[zbdent]

1. "contradicted by official US Defense Department records" ... not only that,

a guy who got a medal for the very same event where Kerry got one of his ...

[karynnj]

3. Exactly

I remember Kerry answering in the last few weeks that one problem they had in dealing with it was that the media played with it for weeks after they had proven a large number of plain out lies. Lies - like that one and of soe people who described things when they were not even in the same place at the same tie.

The most galling thing is that the media demanded Kerry disprove every thing they said (in the midst of an election)- in spite of the fact that the SBVT contradicted the official record and did not have a single piece of substantiation. To me, this was a media condoned character assassination. The fact is that Richard Nixon, as bad as he was, accepted the results of his administration's research - done about 2 years after the fact - that Kerry was a war hero and clean.

Sam Fox, one of the funders of the SBVT, had to face Kerry on the SFRC when Fox was nominated to be the ambassador to Belgium. He tried to proactively deal with having done that to avoid (unsuccessfully) Kerry hitting him on this. He did this by saying to Senator Kerry in his remarks that Kerry was a war hero and he would always have that. But, in reality, this country's media and the Republicans repaid a young man putting himself at risk, unlike Cheney and others, who had other priorities, by turning what should, in a fair world, have been a major character validation into at best a wash. Fox and others actually did take away his status as a war hero at the time it should have been most valuable to him.

[politicasista]

2. Kick

Interesting. :kick:

Senator Kerry does this for Obama, yet some (not all) Obama supporters always insult him and link him with the likes of that lowlife Romney. Glad Obama is above all that. JAO

[karynnj]

4. Please give it a rest

If there were Obama supporters trashing Kerry, the first question would be whether the things they were criticizing were truthful. It is entirely fair for them to disagree with a position of his - or to disagree with Obama himself, even as they support Obama. But, I have not seen any people I identify as Obama supporters attacking Senator Kerry.

In the last few posts that centered on Kerry, the FIRST person to mention this was you - on many threads, it was ONLY in response to you that anyone else mentioned it. Incidentally, Kerry addressed that in his 2008 speech at the convention when he spoke of McCain's flip flops and Bob Shrum wrote a wonderful oped that defended that Kerry was consistent and Romney a shape-shifter.

Kerry and Romney have little in common except central-casting presidential jawlines. In 2004, Kerry inartfully and too memorably said he voted for $87 billion supplemental appropriation for operations in Iraq before voting against it. It was a self-inflicted wound, the memorable trigger for an instant and persistent attack. But it was no flip-flop. Kerry had voted to fund the money so long as Republicans paid for it by rescinding one one-hundredth of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. The flip-flop attacks on Kerry’s record were all like this, based on distortions like Senate votes stripped of context. They had to be, because Kerry’s real record is a lifetime of consistency.

But consistency and Romney don’t belong in the same sentence. That’s why using the Bush-Cheney playbook against him isn’t just an insult to Kerry; it’s an insult to flip-flopping. Romney isn’t a flip-flopper; he’s a shape-shifter.

In contrast, Kerry’s principled record reaches all the way back to his call to end the Vietnam War, an act of moral clarity summed up in a compelling challenge still quoted today: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?’’


The only pearl of moral wisdom Romney has offered thus far came in a recent debate: “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake, I can’t have illegals!’’

http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/2011/11/23/not-flip-flopper-shape-shifter/KQazVVi6dH67JSPWqcVcoK/story.html

[politicasista]

5. Not here, but social network land

from progressive, liberal, Dems that staunchly support President Obama.

OKD smacked down one last night on Twitter that said this. (Good for her).


People will come after me for saying that, but that is something we should be prepared for, but that is no longer a big deal anymore it seems.


Excellent thread. Sorry for ruining it. Peace.