Swiftboating
{{Short description|Character assassination as a political tactic}}
{{Redirect|Swiftboat|the naval vessel|Patrol Craft Fast}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2020}}
The term swiftboating, also swift-boating or swift boating, is a pejorative American neologism used to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. The term is derived from Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), the organization responsible for a widely publicized—and later discredited—political smear campaign{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Politics, the Media, and Popular Culture|first1=Brian|last1=Cogan|first2=Tony|last2=Kelso|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2009|pages=37, 155, 187, 335|isbn=978-0-313-34379-7|quote=the group's major claims were eventually uncovered as misleading ... The Swift Boat smear campaign is often identified as being one of the significant factors that contributed to the defeat of Kerry by incumbent George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election}}{{cite book|title=Until the last man comes home: POWs, MIAs, and the unending Vietnam War|url=https://archive.org/details/untillastmancome00alle_614|url-access=limited|first1=Michael Joe|last1=Allen|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|year=2009|pages=[https://archive.org/details/untillastmancome00alle_614/page/n346 294]–299|isbn=978-0-8078-3261-5}}{{cite book|title=The making of modern America: the nation from 1945 to the present|url=https://archive.org/details/makingmodernamer00dona|url-access=limited|first1=Gary|last1=Donaldson|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/makingmodernamer00dona/page/n345 333]|isbn=978-0-7425-4820-6}}{{cite book|title=Lapdogs: How the Press Lay Down for the Bush White House|first1=Eric|last1=Boehlert|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2006|page=198|isbn=0-7432-9916-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H9DvHdbvW7UC }} against the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.{{cite web|title=University of Pennsylvania National Annenberg Election Survey|publisher=PollingReport.com|url=https://www.pollingreport.com/wh04misc2.htm|access-date=March 30, 2007 |quote=conducted August 9–16, 2004}}{{cite journal|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/dissent/v056/56.2.casey.html|title=No redemption song: The Case of Bill Ayers|last=Casey|first=Leo|date=Spring 2009|journal=Dissent|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|volume=56|number=2|pages=107–111|issn=0012-3846|doi=10.1353/dss.0.0041|s2cid=143605641|quote=In recent elections, the patriotism and good names of Democratic war hero candidates, from John Kerry to Max Cleland, had been impugned so successfully that a neologism for such smears—to 'swift boat'—was coined out of the assault on Kerry.|url-access=subscription}}{{cite news|title=The Vets Attack |first=Evan |last=Thomas |url=https://www.newsweek.com/vets-attack-124775 |work=Newsweek |date=November 14, 2004 |access-date=February 6, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610022244/http://www.newsweek.com/id/55728/output/print |archive-date=June 10, 2008 }} Since the 2004 United States presidential election, the term has been commonly applied to a political attack that is dishonest, personal, and unfair.{{cite book|title=The Promise and Performance of American Democracy|url=https://archive.org/details/promiseperforman00jonr|url-access=limited|first1=Jon|last1=Bond|first2=Kevin|last2=Smith|publisher=Cengage Learning|year=2011|page=[https://archive.org/details/promiseperforman00jonr/page/n227 206]|isbn=978-0-495-91374-0}}{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/archive/6685134/to-swift-boat-or-not/ |title=To Swift-Boat or Not |magazine=Time |first=Michael |last=Kinsley |date=June 12, 2008 |access-date=9 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240809150204/https://time.com/archive/6685134/to-swift-boat-or-not/ |archive-date=9 August 2024 |url-status=live}}
Origin
The term "Swift Boat" itself refers to a class of United States Navy vessel used during the Vietnam War. During the 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry's heroism under fire as a Swift Boat commander in Vietnam was a centerpiece of his campaign.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21239-2004Aug21.html|title=Swift Boat Accounts Incomplete|author=Michael Dobbs|date=August 22, 2004|newspaper=The Washington Post}} A number of Vietnam veterans who had served on Swift Boats formed a 527 organization called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth with the intent of discrediting his military record and attacking his subsequent antiwar activities as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The group produced a series of television ads and a bestselling book, Unfit for Command.{{cite book|last=O'Neill|first=John|author2=Corsi|title=Unfit for Command|date=August 15, 2004|publisher=Regnery Publishing|location=Washington, DC|isbn=0-89526-017-4|url=https://archive.org/details/unfitforcommands00onei}} The unsubstantiated charges against Kerry by the SBVT gave rise to the term "swiftboating" as a synonym for "the nastiest of campaign smears",{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/us/politics/30swift.html|work=The New York Times|title=Veterans Long to Reclaim the Name 'Swift Boat'|first=Kate|last=Zernike|date=June 30, 2008|access-date=March 27, 2010}} "a slimy political attack",{{cite news |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/06/30/mccain-supporter-defends-swift-boat-attacks/ |work=The Wall Street Journal|title=McCain Supporter Defends Swift Boat Attacks|first=Laura|last=Meckler|date=June 30, 2008|access-date=February 24, 2012}} and, for many, "ugly, unprincipled slander".{{cite book |title="War stories": false atrocity tales, swift boaters, and winter soldiers--what really happened in Vietnam |first1=Gary |last1=Kulik |publisher=Potomac Books, Inc. |year=2009 |page=105 |isbn=978-1-59797-304-5}}{{cite news |author=Elizabeth Bumiller |date=August 26, 2004 |page=A1 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/26/us/2004-campaign-vietnam-record-lawyer-for-bush-quits-over-links-kerry-s-foes.html |title=The 2004 Campaign: Vietnam Record; Lawyer for Bush Quits Over Links to Kerry's Foes |quote="a veterans group that has leveled unsubstantiated attacks on Senator John Kerry's Vietnam War record in a book and on the air."|newspaper=The New York Times}}{{cite book|last=Manjoo|first=Farhad|author-link=Farhad Manjoo|title=True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society|date=March 17, 2008|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=New Jersey|pages=[https://archive.org/details/trueenoughlearni00manj/page/14 14]|isbn=978-0-470-05010-1|url=https://archive.org/details/trueenoughlearni00manj/page/14}}{{cite news |author=Michael Getler |url=https://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2007/07/detecting_more_than_history.html |title=Detecting More Than History? |publisher=PBS |date=July 13, 2007}}{{cite news |title=Glossary: US elections |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-15730790 |work=BBC News |access-date=November 29, 2011 |quote=Swift-boating The name given by Democrats to the tactic of unfairly attacking or smearing a candidate, often with half-truths. }} As the purpose of a tax-exempt 527 organization is "to focus on the issues" rather than "attack or defend a specific candidate", the SBVT was fined by the Federal Election Commission in 2004 for specifically attacking Kerry instead of focusing on political issues. The Swift Boat Veterans and media pundits objected to this use of the term to define a smear campaign.{{cite book|title=Campaign Finance Reform: The Political Shell Game|first1=Melissa M.|last1=Smith|first2=Glenda C.|last2=Williams|first3=Larry|last3=Powell|first4=Gary A.|last4=Copeland|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2010|isbn=978-0-7391-4566-1|page=105|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RC7eoV_7mGQC&pg=PA105|access-date=February 17, 2012}}
Other use
Formed in 1997, a 527 Political Action Committee called Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain, similar to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, attacked John McCain for his military record. Former Vietnam veteran and co-founder Ted Sampley made several false claims on McCain's military service. Sampley claimed that McCain had not been tortured while held captive in Vietnam, and that he had collaborated with the Vietcong in exchange for medical treatment.{{Cite web |date=2013-07-28 |title=Sen. John McCain - POW/MIA Freedom Bracelets |url=http://www.usvetdsp.com/mccainpg.htm |access-date=2024-11-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728055746/http://www.usvetdsp.com/mccainpg.htm |archive-date=July 28, 2013 }}{{Cite web |last=Conason |first=Joe |date=2004-02-11 |title=The Vietnam smear -- from McCain to Kerry |url=https://www.salon.com/2004/02/10/kerry_smear/ |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=Salon |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Garcia |first=Arturo |date=2018-05-11 |title=Was Sen. John McCain a 'Hanoi Hilton Songbird'? |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/was-sen-john-mccain-a-hanoi-hilton-songbird/ |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=Snopes |language=en}} Sampley would later found another group called Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry during the 2004 presidential race.
During the 2008 presidential race, the political action committee Brave New PAC released an attack ad against 2008 U.S. presidential candidate John McCain that was compared to swiftboating. The ad targeted McCain's POW status with a fellow prisoner of war describing him "as a very volatile guy" and someone he doesn't want "with his finger near the red button."{{Cite web |last=Raju |first=Manu |date=September 3, 2008 |title=Attack ad targets McCain's POW status |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/news/13704-attack-ad-targets-mccains-pow-status/ |url-status= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241005215608/https://thehill.com/homenews/news/13704-attack-ad-targets-mccains-pow-status/ |archive-date=October 5, 2024 |access-date=October 5, 2024 |website=The Hill}} The New York Times reported in 2008 that many Swift Boat veterans, "especially those who had nothing to do with the group that attacked Senator John Kerry's military record in the 2004 election—want their good name back, and the good names of the men not lucky enough to come home alive", expressed regret and dismay that the term "swift boat" has come to represent a political attack and "political chicanery" against a member of a different party.
Charges of "swiftboating" were made by supporters of both major candidates in the 2012 presidential election. Republican Party strategists compared attacks by the Obama campaign on Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital to swiftboating: "It's very clear they are trying to re-create and take a page out for the 2004 Bush campaign."{{cite news |first=Halimah |last=Abdullah |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/25/politics/romney-swift-boat/index.html |title=GOP strategists: Bain attack ads are this year's Swift Boat campaign |work=CNN|date=July 25, 2012|access-date=August 19, 2012}} The term was also used by a representative of Barack Obama's re-election campaign to describe the documentary film Dishonorable Disclosures and an associated ad campaign released by the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund on the topic of the death of Osama bin Laden.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/16/us/politics/ex-military-and-cia-officers-attack-obama-over-bin-laden-leaks.html|title=Ex-Officers Attack Obama Over Leaks on Bin Laden Raid|work=The New York Times|date=August 15, 2012|access-date=August 15, 2012 |last=Shane |first=Scott |author2=Kitty Bennett |page=A12}}
During the 2016 presidential race, feminist Gloria Steinem accused Donald Trump of swiftboating his rival Hillary Clinton, calling her "Crooked Hillary", despite his record of much more frequent and severe lying.{{cite news |last=Steinem |first=Gloria |date=November 7, 2016 |title=Clinton has been swiftboated by Trump and his acolytes |url=https://www.ft.com/content/41f9b0fa-a43c-11e6-8898-79a99e2a4de6 |access-date=February 24, 2019 |work=Financial Times}} Clinton compared Republicans' statements about Christine Blasey Ford during the Kavanaugh confirmation process to the "swift-boating of John Kerry".{{cite news |last=Cummings |first=William |date=September 10, 2016 |title=Hillary Clinton: You 'cannot be civil' with Republicans, Democrats need to be 'tougher' |url=https://usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/10/09/hillary-clinton-cnn-interview/1578636002/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208235045/https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/10/09/hillary-clinton-cnn-interview/1578636002/ |archive-date=February 8, 2019 |access-date=9 August 2024 |work=USA Today}} During the 2024 United States presidential election, Republican attacks on the military record of Minnesota governor Tim Walz were widely characterized as "swiftboating" in the media.{{cite web |date=8 August 2024 |access-date=9 August 2024 |first=Peter |last=Weber |url=https://theweek.com/politics/vance-walz-military-service-swift-boat-attack |title=Vance hits Walz with 'Swift boat' attack |website=The Week }}{{cite web |first=Ed |last=Kilgore |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/why-the-swiftboating-of-tim-walz-wont-work.html |title=Why the Swiftboating of Tim Walz Won't Work |date=8 August 2024 |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=Intelligencer }}{{cite web |first=Lauren |last=Irwin |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4820217-mikie-sherrill-walz-swift-boat/ |work=The Hill |date=9 August 2024 |access-date=9 August 2024 |title=Mikie Sherrill compares attacks on Tim Walz to Swift Boat smears of John Kerry }}{{Cite web |last=Herb |first=Jeremy |date=2024-08-09 |title=With 'Swift Boat' architect at the helm, Trump campaign uses familiar playbook against Walz |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/09/politics/tim-walz-service-swift-boat-attacks/index.html |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=CNN |language=en}}{{cite news |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/07/vance-walz-military-stolen-valor-garbage-00173172 |first1=Jared |last1=Mitovich |first2=Meridith |last2=McGraw |first3=Connor |last3=O'Brien |title=Vance runs a Swift Boat attack against Walz's military service |work=Politico |date=7 August 2024 |access-date=9 August 2024 }}
Conservative reactions
The use of this term as a pejorative has resulted in objections from some conservatives regarding the implied criticism of the tactic.{{cite news|last=Rosen|first=Mike|title=Story is none too 'swift'|work=Rocky Mountain News |date=October 26, 2006|url=http://m.rockymountainnews.com/news/2006/Oct/27/brosenb-story-is-none-too-swift/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728122213/http://m.rockymountainnews.com/news/2006/Oct/27/brosenb-story-is-none-too-swift/ |url-status=dead |access-date=February 13, 2013|archive-date=July 28, 2013 }} In 2006, conservative commentator Emmett Tyrrell denounced its repeated negative usage, saying it "is about to join such terms as McCarthyism and McCarthyite" as a "hate term".{{cite news|last=Tyrrell|first=R. Emmett Jr.|title=Swiftboating has become a hate term |work=CNN |date=June 4, 2006|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/01/tyrrell.swiftboating/index.html|access-date=March 30, 2007}} In a 2006 interview, John O'Neill, spokesman for Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, called the term's usage a "baseless smear against somebody's personal character".{{cite news|last=Moore|first=John|title=Behind the Scenes: Swift Boat Veterans vs. John Kerry|publisher=Useful Fools|date=November 16, 2006|url=https://www.tinyvital.com/blog/2007/09/16/behind-the-scenes-swift-boat-veterans-vs-john-kerry/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513082737/https://www.tinyvital.com/blog/2007/09/16/behind-the-scenes-swift-boat-veterans-vs-john-kerry/ |url-status=dead |access-date=November 14, 2007|archive-date=May 13, 2008 }} Fox News Radio host John Gibson published the 2009 book How the Left Swiftboated America, where he defines swiftboating as "the political trick of claiming to expose truth while in fact lying".{{cite book |last1=Gibson |first1=John |year=2009 |title=How the Left Swiftboated America: The Liberal Media Conspiracy to Make You Think George Bush was the Worst President in History |publisher=HarperCollins |page=vii–viii |isbn=978-0-06-179289-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780061792892 |url-access=registration }} Republican Newt Gingrich, putting his own twist on the neologism at a presidential campaign stop on January 1, 2012, said he felt he was being "Romney-boated" by the barrage of negative ads run against him.{{cite news |author=Mike Allen |author2=Jonathan Martin |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2008/02/rush-right-rally-to-mccain-008617 |title=Rush, right rally to McCain |newspaper=Politico |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912154512/https://www.politico.com/story/2008/02/rush-right-rally-to-mccain-008617 |url-status=live |date=February 21, 2008|archive-date=September 12, 2015 }}{{cite news |author=Trip Gabriel |url=http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/gingrich-says-hes-been-romney-boated/ |title=Gingrich Says He's Been 'Romney-Boated' |department=The Caucus (blog) |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 1, 2012}}
See also
- John Kerry military service controversy
- Borking, another political neologism
- Astroturfing
- Swift Boat Challenge
- Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain