Will the mainstream media ever report that Bush went AWOL for a year?

[NNN0LHI]

Poll question: Will the mainstream media ever report that Bush went AWOL for a year?

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

1. After the fact

When's he's being lead out of the White House in handcuffs, they'll all pretend to be shocked as they announce that perhaps the Bush Administration has been "less than honest" with the American people.

[blm]

2. Yes, if Kerry or Clark are the nominee.

No if other nominee, however THEIR lack of service will be blown out of proportion by the corporate mediawhores.

[grannylib]

3. Right on

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. Exactly. And Dean skiing vs. Bush TANG (AWOL or not)

wins the PR battle of macho man military image.

[Scott Lee]

18. "AWOL or not"? Good lord, they got you too, huh?

That's the Repukkklican mantra "Doesn't matter if George did wrong, he's a good guy".

Yessir, that's just what we need at this juncture.

[CalebHayes]

19. Thats it.

The Demos are the real heros. Kerry and Clark...

[nannygoat]

4. Anybody got the link to the Boston Globe comprehensive

article with the timeline about pres AWOL? I've got a friend whose husband (and his father) are serious Faux news watchers. She told her husband * was AWOL and her husband wouldn't believe her. I'm trying to hunt up some links for her to print out and give him but I can't find the link to the Boston Globe article with all kinds of great links and a timeline in it. Anybody have it? Thanks.

[eleny]

7. Timeline link

with links to scanned documents http://awol.gq.nu/4dawol.htm There are popups but it's worth the hassle.

[nannygoat]

9. Thanks, eleny!

Here's a direct link to the one I was specifically asking about in case others need it:

One-year gap in Bush's National Guard duty
http://web.archive.org/web/20000619121358/http://www.boston.com/news/politics/campaign2000/news/One_year_gap_in_Bush_s_Guard_duty+.shtml

[eleny]

10. You're welcome

At the bottom of the page I posted, there's a link called "Grounded". It's the document that grounds him for not taking the medical exam.

There's another page I used to share. But many of the links to documents are now dead ends So, I'm glad I saved the pages and scanned documents pages some time ago. If you find a page you want, I'd suggested saving the entire page for future reference. Although this stuff was gathered from freedom of information requests, I would imagine lots of web pages could disappear as the election nears. Yeah, I'm paranoid!

Thanks for sharing that other link!

[YNGW]

5. It won't matter

Water under the bridge. If anyone was to make something of it, they should have done it more forcefully in 2000. You do it now and it just looks like sour grapes.

There's plenty more to focus on. This is not an election issue for an incumbent president. People vote their wallets.

:bounce:

dai

[cybildisobedience]

13. If it were a Dem failure, it would NEVER be water under the bridge

Who cares if Gore didn't make more of the opportunity?
I agree -- he should have. But just because Gore didn't fight on that level doesn't mean that Dean or Kerry or anyone else should back down. Why cede that issue to the Repukes?
They have a deserter at the head of their ticket, and we're questioning whether or not we should make a big deal of it?

[oc2002]

6. The time to do it was in the 2000 election.

Gore campaign should of made it an issue, since Gore served in NAM, and not just in a domestic Gaurd unit.

Why Gore campaign failed to point that out, make more of his own service in NAM and why the campaign never went for the jugular?

Maybe 2004, if its Kery he will not make the same mistake, but I like Dean more, and he was deffered(sp?) service for back problems from the military.

[LittleApple81]

11. Sorry that we did not do it then. But "NEVER FORGET" is a repug mantra

that perhaps we should start using for ourselves? Obviously, this is not the MAIN issue, but all these freepers and their like that TRULY believe he was something like a "test pilot" for new airplanes while in the national guard and that is why it was a secret will see that debunked. MAYBE this would drive them nuts... which in itself would be a pleasure.

[rucky]

12. Yep! ... "Get over it" is another Repug mantra

doesn't mean we should

Our mantra: "No justice, no peace"

[mlawson]

20. Why the Gore campaign failed to point it out??

Because they remembered what happened to Carter in 1980, when he correctly pointed out Ronnie's extreme RW ties and policies: Carter was flailed alive by the 'liberal press' for being "petty and mean". Then Ronnie would shrug and grin, everyone said Awwwww, and the deal was sealed.

bush would have responded exactly the same way. And the average voter is now far more uninformed than in 1980.

[NNN0LHI]

14. kick for the late shift n/t

[retyred]

15. If it comes down to the Question of AWOL

It will be handled the same way as it was before when it was asserted he was AWOL from the link nannygoat posted in #9 above:

<A Bush spokesman, Dan Bartlett, said after talking with the governor that Bush recalls performing some duty in Alabama and ''recalls coming back to Houston and doing duty, though he does not recall if it was on a consistent basis.''


Noting that Bush, by that point, was no longer flying, Bartlett added, ''It's possible his presence and role became secondary.''


Last night, Mindy Tucker, another Bush campaign aide, asserted that the governor ''fulfilled all of his requirements in the Guard.'' If he missed any drills, she said, he made them up later on.

<snip>

Those who trained and flew with Bush, until he gave up flying in April 1972, said he was among the best pilots in the 111th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. In the 22-month period between the end of his flight training and his move to Alabama, Bush logged numerous hours of duty, well above the minimum requirements for so-called ''weekend warriors.''

<snip>

Assessing Bush's military service three decades later is no easy task: Some of his superiors are no longer alive. Others declined to comment, or, understandably, cannot recall details about Bush's comings and goings. And as Bush has risen in public life over the last several years, Texas military officials have put many of his records off-limits and heavily redacted many other pages, ostensibly because of privacy rules.

***********************

The only way it'll be brought up is if one of our guys bring it up and from the way it was handled before by the media it will look like a desperation ploy of a non-issue on the part of the Democrats. Not only could it look desperate, but to belittle a war time pResident by claiming he went AWOL could be the death knell for our side.

[Oracle]

16. What is the Bush going AWOL website? Does anyone know?

Thanks

[Gringo]

17. Only if the Dem candidate addresses it forcefully in the debates.

Gore should've done it in 2000. It's kinda late now...