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02/28/2005: "SherWright Scoop: The Next Swifty Ad"

I’m guessing that the Swift Boat Veterans aren’t too pleased with their demonstration to their Right Wing donors that they’re not just a flash in the pan. They’ve got to be paranoid about the crowd who loaded up their coffers when they were doing damage to Kerry’s military record among veterans. The Swifties have to be worried that donors will start wondering whether their value was too closely tied to too narrow a situation. Their foray into sliming AARP just didn’t have the desired impact. It inspired a response, all right, but it wasn’t second thoughts about AARP as much as mystification over what the heck they were talking about and derision over disconnect with existing strongly-formed attitudes about AARP. They’re probably thinking they’ve got to go back to their roots - personal attacks that call into question a figure’s most pronounced accomplishments. The best example is their allegation that Kerry faked the circumstances behind his war wounds and resulting purple hearts. What would that strategy look like when applied to Social Security? Something like this: Graphic of a leering Franklin Roosevelt. Narrator: “Do you think you already know everything you need to about the liberal genius behind Social Security? Think again.” Graphic of Roosevelt apparently standing next to a soldier. Retired veteran: “I was Roosevelt’s military aide. I often had to bring him news about important military developments. I was one of the few conservatives in his liberal cocoon, and one of the very few that knew his secret: he was faking his disability to get the sympathy vote.” Retired medical technician: “I know the real story of Roosevelt’s ‘physicals.’ He laughed about how Lincoln was wrong about fooling all of the people all of the time! I know. I was there.” Graphic of standing Roosevelt with marines. Retired marine guard: “I used to look forward to him nodding as he passed me in the morning on the way to the Oval Office. Then one day I overheard him saying that Social Security was the key to getting Americans behind government control. That’s when it hit me – he was a communist! After that I requested a transfer to combat. I just couldn’t stand having anything to do with that traitor!” Graphic: Roosevelt joking with Stalin at Yalta. Narrator: “Social Security is falling apart for the same reasons as the country that inspired it, the Soviet Union. Free enterprise is the American Way, not government bureaucracy. Tell your congressman that you will vote for guaranteed personal accounts, not big-government lies.” Tagline: This message was produced by Swift Boat Retirees for Truth.