As Election Nears, Kerry, MTV Still Flogging Draft Lies

Despite the recent defeat of the draft bill in Congress, both John Kerry and MTV's Rock the Vote campaign stubbornly continue to flog draft lies in a flagrant attempt to "Scare the Vote". The following is from a Washington Times story dated October 6th:

"For two months — especially on college campuses — they've used the draft as a fear tactic to get people to vote against George W. Bush," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, said of Democrats.

Mr. Kerry has said several times on the campaign trail that President Bush might use a draft, including yesterday, in Tipton, Iowa, when he listed "the possibility of a draft" among his reasons that voters might be motivated to support him.

Yesterday's draft bill — sponsored by Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat — was defeated 402-2, with even Mr. Rangel voting against the proposal that called for reinstituting the practice abandoned in 1973 when the military converted to an all-volunteer force.

Just yesterday - 11 days after the bill was defeated - Mr. Kerry was still making claims that there could be a draft if President Bush were re-elected:

There is a "great potential of a draft" to replenish U.S. forces in Iraq if President Bush wins a second term, Democratic challenger John Kerry said in an Iowa newspaper interview published today.

Bush said during the second presidential debate that there would be no revival of the military draft under any circumstances if he is re-elected. "We're not going to have a draft, period," the president said.

However, Kerry told The Des Moines Register, "With George Bush, the plan for Iraq is more of the same and the great potential of a draft." Kerry gave the interview Thursday evening before a late-night rally and before leaving to campaign in Wisconsin today.

Bush did not directly respond to Kerry's comment. But he said in Cedar, Rapids, Iowa, that he was "modernizing and transforming our United States military to keep the all-volunteer army an all-volunteer army."

The DNC's lie campaign has been a smashing success: polls show young people are more misinformed on this issue than the general population:

The National Annenberg Election Survey found that 51 percent of adults age 18 to 29 believe Bush wants to reinstate the draft. Eight percent said Kerry supports bring back the draft, and 7 percent said both want to. A fourth of those polled said neither candidate favors the idea.

Both Bush and Kerry say they don't support a renewed military draft. Earlier this week, the House defeated a bill paving the way to a draft 402-2. House Republicans have sought to quash the persistent Internet rumor that the president wants to reinstate the draft if re-elected while Democrats have fanned the flames on the rumor.

Meanwhile, MTV, which attracts millions of young voters to its website, sports this graphic on the front page of its Rock the Vote site:

If you click on the link, you get a flimsy article that briefly acknowledges the draft bill was voted down, but goes on to claim that "that doesn't mean it's over!" (I'm not sure where they think the support is going to magically come from for a bill that was just defeated 402-2). The article goes on to provide some very incomplete and misleading recruiting "statistics".

And the campaign to mislead America's youth continues... If you wish to express your displeasure to MTV, you can do so by calling Hans Reimer, Political Director of Rock The Vote at 202 962-9710 - He is the one responsible for this campaign. I suggest you become familiar with it first.

Thanks to Dave Mendoza for the MTV link.

- Cassandra