"I'm sure the Democrats think that it's a Republican deal the same way that the Republicans would think that it's a Democrat deal. We didn't have any choice. I don't think having a vehicle makes any difference one way or the other. Our object is to get the actual story on the guy out to the American people and let the chips fall where they may. If there's a better way to do it, if anyone has a better suggestion, come up with it and we'll do it."
SBVT, O'Neill says, will use whatever medium available to get their message to the public. What concerns the Kerry camp more, however, and what has the left screaming, is who will be funding those ads.
Troy Fields
Now a spokesman for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, John O'Neill has resumed a favorite role: trying to discredit John Kerry.
After returning from Vietnam, Kerry criticized the war effort and likened the United States forces to those of Genghis Khan.
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If the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are, in fact, a Republican front in the same way that Republicans claim that MoveOn.org or similar organizations are controlled through back channels by the Democrats, the question becomes whether it's a sound strategy on the part of the GOP. It's no secret that the Bush/Cheney campaign would like to avoid any light being cast or recast on Bush's service in the Air National Guard in Alabama during Vietnam. By bringing up Kerry's war record, either overtly or covertly, wouldn't the Republicans simply be setting Bush up for another fall? And more than that, does the message created by third parties and soft money have as big an impact as conspiracy theorists like to believe?
"It has all the fingerprints of political operatives working through people who are probably well-intentioned but who are most likely being used for definite political gain, possibly without even realizing they're being manipulated," says Bill Miller, a political consultant with HillCo Partners in Austin. "They've become a weapon for the campaign. Whether they know it or not or want to admit it, they're being used for the good of the Republican Party.
"But me, personally, I wouldn't have chosen that plan of attack as a political consultant to the Republicans. For my money, that's not the way to go. But I understand what they're trying to do. If you wanted to argue the other side, let's assume the other side is accepting the hypothesis that Bush's war record is weak. You'd want to make it weak-to-weak so that it's comparative. You don't want to give an inch. If you take away an advantage, it's a net win for you--that's the way they look at it. Me, personally, it's not the way I'd go.
"But, soon enough, this kind of third-party activity will become irrelevant if it isn't already. We're fast approaching the homestretch of the campaign. The most important thing to voters right now will be what Bush and Kerry have to say, and then the vice presidential races. It's all about the candidates from here on out and not really about third parties."
Maybe. But if there's any common ground between the two groups, it's that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and Veterans for Kerry strongly believe in what they're saying, and they plan to keep preaching right up until the election. Their ongoing battle, they hope, will bring voters around to their side and their version of the truth. And so Americans are left to wade through the post-Vietnam muck, left to determine who's lying and who's not before casting their ballots. It is an important task for the country, and a difficult one, too--on that, there can be no disagreement.
