Kerry denounces McCain campaign for its 'ugliness'
By Jeremy P. Jacobs, PolitickerMA.com ReporterU.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Boston) campaigning in Framingham earlier this year: Politicker PhotoU.S. Sen. John Kerry denounced John McCain's negative messages on Friday, saying the Arizonan's campaign has turned "ugly" and "desperate."
Kerry, a Boston Democrat, made his remarks in a message distributed to his large email list. Here are the key grafs,
John McCain has shown a stunning failure of leadership. His campaign, in a time of economic crisis and foreign policy drift, has degenerated into a negative and nasty campaign of smears.
The reports are piling up of ugliness at the campaign rallies of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Audience members hurl insults and racial epithets, call out "Kill Him!" and "Off With His Head," and yell "treason" when Senator Obama's name is mentioned. I strongly condemn language like this which can only be described as hate-filled.
Kerry, who faced strong and inaccurate attacks as the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, notes recent studies that have shown that all of McCain's ads recently have been attack ads and calls on his supporters to retaliate against the attacks by visiting his website www.truthfightsback.com.
"Make no mistake," Kerry writes near the end of the email, "these are desperation tactics from the McCain-Palin campaign. They know that they are in trouble, that the American people are tired of the Republican policies that got us into this mess. But desperation does not excuse the kind of campaign they are now running."
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As usual, Kerry is smug and arrogant
Kerry, you are so smug and self righteous, you make many of us ill. It will be a breath of fresh air if Beatty gets elected.
McCain defended Kerry in 2004
I remember when McCain came to John's defense in 2004 risking his own political future. It is amazing what a piece of garbage Kerry is vs the integrity of McCain.
irony
I would listen to Kerry on this one, because if anyone knows something about "ugly" and "desperate" its him. That's why Teresa married him in the first place. Come to think of it, thats why John Heinz married Teresa in the first place too!
Good for John Kerry. McCain
Good for John Kerry. McCain ought to be ashamed of his campaign allowing it to be turned into the Hate Talk Express.
As to who has defended whom, John Kerry defended McCain when he was attacked as a "Manchurian Candidate" during the POW/MIA hearings in '91. He also defended McCain in 2000 against the smear tactics used by the Bush campaign. Kerry organized a letter signed by all Vietnam veterans in the U.S. Senate (a bipartisan group) condemning those tactics, demanding that Bush apologize and refute it. McCain did not return the favor in kind in 2004 -- he called the Swift Boater attacks "dishonest and dishonorable", but applied absolutely no pressure whatsoever on Bush to condemn the SBVT. John McCain used Kerry's letter in a debate against Bush in 2000; when Kerry used McCain in an ad in 2004 talking about the smear tactics, McCain DEMANDED the ad be taken down. Some friend McCain turned out to be.
The bottom line is McCain did the bare minimum in 2004, while Kerry really did much more than would be expected from someone from the other party.
Kerry has more integrity than McCain ever had
Kerry was fighting corrupt banks when McCain was one of Keating 5.
Cliff, you are an idiot
John Kerry, Teresa Heinz Kerry, and John Heinz are all better people than you clearly are, judging from this ridiculous insult that you appear to think is clever.
Anonymous124
Kerry is simply asking people to step back and stop creating hate. He is not the only one making this plea, There are moderate Republicans asking the same thing.
Between all of them, they apear to have reached McCain and today he did step back and told a person saying these things that Obama is a decent man, a family man - but they disagree. That was a good step for McCain to take - and I suspect that having done it, he will feel better about himself.
John Kerry....Pathetic figure
Karen C,,,sounds like you have a love affair with John Kerry. Once again I'll state...John Kerry will say and do anything to keep his job...He sits on the fence until he sees which way the wind is blowing and then he jumps in...He hasn't had an original thought coming out of his pompous mouth. He ought ot get one of them there hunting licenses and leave the Senate.
Oh please, save it karenc
Oh please, save it karenc; we are truly doomed if obama is elected. McCain/Palin '08
Ugliness
One unkempt man at one rally yells a comment that hits the front page. He was by appearance a plant. What about all the hanging effigies of Bush for 8 years--no comments from liberals there.
I do not in any fashion advocate violence or inciteful speech but I am afraid of Obama's leadership. His record IS the reason and his POOR judgment. 20 years in Rev Wright's church, 13 year close working relationship with Ayers, dishonest loan from Rezko, stated friendship with convicted felon and ex mayor Kwami Kilpatrick, his using US Senate money to travel to Kenya in 2006 to promote his cousin the violent Odinga, his multiple lawsuits against anyone who speaks out, his Truth Squad in MO and his ever changing stories about what he did or did not know or do should terrify everyone of all races who believes in American freedoms. WAKE UP AMERICA!
Americans have a right to know before voting!
There is nothing misleading about this, only facts. Obama's ties to terrorist are a national security issue and major concern. Obama has supported multiple terrorist in the past. Most recently as 2006 when Obama used U.S. taxpayer funds and his Senatorial position to campaign for one of his radical relatives, named Raila Odinga. Odinga was running for President of Kenya and lost by almost 300,000 votes. Then he called for demonstrations which resulted in ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated by his supporters. All of the proof is in the video. The proof is very very clear. Just watch the 8 minute video. You won't have any doubts. Titled: Barack Obama & Raila Odinga - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=S8QcpdUtxNQ&feature=related
As the old saying goes
As the old saying goes "Republicans believe what they see; Democrats see what they believe"; it's clearly evident here.
Kerry and Lies
Dear John,
You called the swift boat vets lies, you do remember right?
John, they told the truth and john,that is why you got your a** handed to you!
John, it is against the law for ugly people to be in public. and it is also against the law to lie but, God will forgive a sinner.
Regards,
Someone that laughed at your ignorant rants when Bush beat you like a rented mule.
Bill Bordeaux
Navy records and the Vietnam era Secretary of the Navy both back John Kerry over the SBVT. The fact is that Republicans, such as Guilliani have used the word "swiftboating" to diminish accusations against them. This means that they agree that the charges were lies.
Kerry told the truth in 2004 and there are likely far more Bush voters wishing they had voted for Kerry than Kerry voters wishing they voted for Bush.
The accuracy of what you say can be judged by your comment, "it is against the law for ugly people to be in public. and it is also against the law to lie but" The former is not true and the latter is also not true except under very particular circumstances.
Mike6
Your comment is idiotic, sexist and intended to intimidate me from posting.
Kerry has not sat on the fence, but has led on many issues. On Iraq, a variation of his Kerry/Feingold amendment is the Democratic position. In 2006, only 13 Senators voted for it. 6 months later all of them had moved to similar positions.
Kerry wrote the legislation needed to follow the money in the 1990s after his BCCI investigation - it was passed after 911. Kerry's 2004 (which was similar to what he wrote in 2001) position on how to deal with non-state terrorists was recently taken up by Defense Secretary Gates.
Those are just 2 very major ideas where Kerry's thoughts were original and where he was on the leading edge.
As to just being worried about keeping his job - his investigations of BCCI and the ilegal funding of the Contras were politically risky. In addition, Rassmussen Polls gave Kerry a 99.5% chance of being re-elected and that was before the primary.
KarenC
Spoken like a true Democrat....I didn't meean to be "mean spirited",,,or hurt your "feelings"..or offend your "sex"(not sure how I did that). You need big government to take care of you so you don't feel bad anymore now don't you..John Kerry was for everything before he was against it remember? This man threw his medals away in disgrace, called our solders baby killers but touts that he is a proud veteran...he is a phony...
Mike C
Read your comment and ask yourself if you would have written it to a "KevinC". You also ignore that I gave two issues where Kerry led. Instead, you finally get to your real problem - that Kerry spoke against the war in 1971. The fact is his dissent to a policy that was wrong is patriotic. Freedom of speech is meaningless if it can not be used to dissent.
Have you ever read Kerry's full 1971 statement? Kerry was called before the committee to report on what he heard at the Winter Soldier Hearing. He did that very quickly in the beginning of his speech where he QUOTED what other soldiers had spoken of doing at then. Kerry NEVER called US soldiers "baby killers"
The Senate also had a transcript of the entire Winter Soldier hearing and the information on who the soldiers were and what they testified to. The Senate, not Kerry had the ability to investigate. As to whether they happened - My Lai was exposed the year before and various atrocities of the Tiger Brigade were exposed afterwards. The US Military rewrote their manuals after Vietnam to try to avoid these actions.
Then Kerry spoke of his opinion that the war was continuing because politicians did not want to admit that there was no way to win. In fact, in the 1990s, McNamara, who led the war, said they knew it could not be won in 1968 - before half the men whose names are on the wall died. Even if Kerry were wrong, it would be his right to politely state his opinion - in fact, he was right.
He then spoke of the need for the government to do more to help the veterans - both in better health care and to help them re-enter society. Kerry worked for veterans from the moment he returned to the US - before he was out of the Navy and before he was in a position to protest. He has been an advocate for veterans for nearly 4 decades.
The last thing he spoke of was the need to change the foreign policy that got us into the war. That still needs to be done.
There was a reason that the Senators all praised Kerry for his testimony.
Impressive
Kerry stands up for McCain during the primaries and a senate hearing. Wow. What cahones. When he stands up for someone during the general election defying his party’s incumbent candidate let me know.
John Kerry DID stand up for
John Kerry DID stand up for McCain this year. And caught hell from the Left for doing so. Just google "john kerry, wes clark, john mccain".
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