Feb 8th, 2010. Filed under Street Talk.
Operation Swift Boat
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DALY CITY
In the 2004 US presidential campaign, public opinion polls indicated that Democratic candidate John Kerry had a chance to beat reelectionist George W. Bush. The recipient of several combat medals, including the Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, as a Navy lieutenant assigned to a Swift boat during the Vietnam war, Kerry benefited from this impressive military record as he pursued his political career. It was also one of the highlights of his claim to the presidency. Everyone loves a war hero, a fact Ferdinand Marcos exploited in his own time.
But the Republicans launched a vicious counter attack, using the Democratic candidate’s very claim to fame. The impact on Kerry’s image and credibility was devastating. And a new term was coined in US politics: Swiftboating.
The anti-Kerry campaign was mounted by a group that called itself the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), composed of Vietnam veterans who, like Kerry, had been on Swift boats. The SBVT accused Kerry of exaggerating his claims about his service in Vietnam and challenged the legitimacy of the combat medals awarded to him.
Kerry and his handlers were apparently blindsided by the Swiftboat blitz and took on a defensive stance. In the process, they lost the momentum of their campaign, as well as the opportunity to mount an effective counter attack. In American political parlance, the Republicans successfully “defined” Kerry, instead of Kerry “defining” Bush.
There was one more weak point in Kerry, a relatively obscure one, but effectively blown up into a major flaw by the streetwise operators in the Republican Department of Dirty Tricks. They fed the media with stories of Kerry’s inconsistent views on issues and succeeded in portraying him as a “flip-flopper,” someone who changed his position for political convenience. Again, Kerry found himself wasting precious media time justifying and rationalizing his positions on issues.
The DDT folks in the US are relatively benign, compared to their Philippine counterparts, but their tactics and devices translate into juicy pieces for the media. During Kerry’s campaign sorties, squads of Republican torpedoes armed with beach sandals - yes, sandals, more popular known in America as flip-flops - hounded him and kept up a barrage of jeers: Flip-flop, flip-plop, flip-plop. The media went to town reporting on this.
This early in the campaign, Noynoy Aquino is already being subjected to a barrage of attacks in non-traditional media, apparently designed to weaken his hold on a voting segment composed of young, idealistic and media savvy Pinoys. On the other hand, Mar Roxas appears to be getting lost in the shuffle, along with the other vice-presidential candidates, except Loren Legarda. Legarda has managed to keep a relatively high profile in a campaign that has focused on the presidential candidates.
From what I’ve read and heard, Aquino’s handlers have been busy framing rebuttals as they shore up their candidates’ defenses. Anybody who saw how Manny Pacquiao demolished Miguel Cotto will tell you that being on the defensive isn’t the most effective way to win a fight.
Aquino’s handlers would do well to read up on the basics of Swiftboating. When Manny Villar and Dick Gordon questioned Aquino’s track record in Congress, at the recent presidential forum at De la Salle Santiago Zobel School, they were still wearing kid gloves. Those gloves are going to be taken off very soon. At any rate, the attacks at that forum were mild compared to what have been fed to YouTube and the Internet.
What is ironic is that Villar himself is wide open for Swiftboating. So far, he has simply brushed off questions thrown at him about how he built up his fortune, how he used his position as Senate president to benefit his real estate interests, how much he has been spending on his campaign and how he intends to get back his “investment.”
A Philippine presidential forum, even if moderated by a straight talker like Mike Enriquez of GMA, is hardly the place for a Swiftboat operation or an equivalent of the flip-flop jeers to which Kerry was subjected.
Pinoys are either too polite or too scared to mount such a frontal attack.
It would take someone like Ping Lacson to launch an effective Swiftboat campaign against Villar. Or the team of Reli German and Butch Aquino during the anti-Marcos campaign. Note that all they had then was a “mosquito press.” Today, the DDT operators have access to the Internet, Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube, radio, TV, print media. Name it.
Of course, two or three or four can play the game. With the Villar boys (who else have been running those online attacks?) going to town with their Swiftboat operations, I wouldn’t be surprised if the camp of Erap and Jojo Binay, two street fighting veterans, were to mount their own counter attack.
When that happens, Gibo Teodoro will most probably get off his statesmanlike perch and start taking off the gloves himself. It’s doubtful that Eddie Villanueva will do the same. Dick Gordon, who is no pushover in close quarters fighting, will probably field his own DDT.
Will that leave Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas walking the saintly road and talking about how they will change the lives of the Filipino people with a platform grounded on honesty, integrity and competence?
In such a case, I urge them to read up on John Kerry’s woes.
Lest I be accused of encouraging mud-slinging in this presidential campaign, I submit that the truth had better be found out about these individuals who would have us believe that they will deliver us from the Aegean Stables of Arroyo. And that truth had better be found out now, before the elections, rather than later, when a new President and Vice-president from Hell will have won the highest plum in the land.
I don’t think the Filipino people can count on the media to do the digging. Too many of our top journalists are doubling up as advisers and publicists of candidates.
It will take interested parties - read that to mean, the DDT operators of each political camp - to spend time and money to do extensive and comprehensive research on the personal lives of the candidates, including their bank accounts in the Philippines and abroad, their financiers, as well as their public lives, their track record, the deals they closed, the way they spent their pork barrel and, yes, their mistresses and second, third and fourth families.
Then let it all hang out and leave it to the Filipino people to decide on which lesser evil they would like to lead the country out of its present hapless state.
It’s time we stop kidding ourselves. Too long has our country been run by a fraternity and, yes, a sorority of opportunists, hustlers, dealmakers and outright thieves, parading as statesmen and redeemers.
Let the Swiftboat operations begin in earnest.
And on that note, I suggest that the Aquino and Roxas camp do a reality check. Otherwise, they could succeed in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
(gregmacabenta@hotmail.com)
