Kerry=Bush

[southsider2k5]

From MSNBC

[southsider2k5]

From today's Trib

 

President Bush, casting aside his desire to appear above the political fray, struck back at his Democratic critics, portraying presidential front-runner John Kerry as a waffler and warning that Democrats would raise taxes, expand government and fail to lead decisively on national security.

 

Bush had hung back for months, despite constant pummeling by the Democratic presidential candidates. But he leveled his sharpest criticism yet at his rivals in a speech Monday night. Bush recalled terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, signaling his willingness to use the strikes for political gain, which his aides long had promised would not be done.

 

 

 

 

"September the 14th, 2001, I stood in the ruins of the Twin Towers. I remember a lot that day," Bush told 1,400 Republican donors at a fund-raiser for GOP governors, recalling his trip to New York after the attacks.

 

"As we all did that day, these men and women searching through the rubble took it personally. I took it personally," he said. "I have a responsibility that goes on. I will never relent in bringing justice to our enemies. I will defend America, whatever it takes."

 

Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, found himself fending off both Bush and his chief rival, fellow Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, heading into nominating contests Tuesday in Hawaii, Idaho and Utah.

 

But both Democratic rivals are looking ahead to the 10 states, California and New York among them, with nominating contests on March 2, also known as Super Tuesday, where Kerry hopes to knock off Edwards.

 

Kerry will spend more than $1 million this week -- nearly five times as much as Edwards -- to run campaign ads in media markets in Ohio, Georgia and New York, which vote March 2, aides said. Edwards has bought about $270,000 of ad time in those states thus far.

 

Bush, meanwhile, has prepared ads for an advertising onslaught that is to start March 4. His re-election campaign will buy airtime over the next two weeks in selected broadcast markets and nationally on cable stations, including CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, according to a Bush-Cheney campaign source, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

 

Edwards was campaigning Tuesday in Atlanta with Georgia lawmakers, before heading to Houston for a rally. Kerry was in Ohio, touring a closed steel mill with laid-off workers and talking with workers at a revitalized factory.

 

In his 40-minute address, Bush mentioned none of the Democratic presidential candidates by name, but some of his sharpest criticism was unmistakably intended for Kerry.

 

"The other party's nomination battle is still playing out. The candidates are an interesting group with diverse opinions," Bush said. "They're for tax cuts and against them. They're for NAFTA and against NAFTA. They're for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act. They're in favor of liberating Iraq, and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts." His supportive audience erupted in laughter and applause.

 

Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter disputed Bush's list of purported flip-flops. Kerry opposed Bush's tax cuts for the richest Americans and stands by that; voted for NAFTA and stands by it; voted for the Patriot Act, but believes the Justice Department is using it to trample civil liberties; and stands by his vote to authorize force in Iraq, but believes Bush's prosecution of the war "created a breeding ground for terror" and alienated allies, Cutter said.

 

Edwards denounced Bush's new rhetoric. "The American people want this campaign to be about the future, not the past," he said. "We offer leadership and hope, the Republicans want to exploit fears and relitigate the past."

 

Bush said the Nov. 2 election presents "a choice between keeping the tax relief that is moving this economy forward, or putting the burden of higher taxes back on the American people."

 

"It's a choice between an America that leads the world with strength and confidence, or an America that is uncertain in the face of danger," he said.

 

Kerry said Bush sounded as if the past three and a half years had never happened.

 

"But the American people haven't forgotten this president's failed record, because they have to live with it every day," he said in a statement. "George Bush's credibility is running out with the American people. They want change in America, and I'm running because I am determined to bring that change and put America back on track."

 

Earlier Monday, Bush tried to shrug off such criticism as election-year posturing. "It's going to be the year of the sharp elbow and the quick tongue," he told governors of both parties at the White House.

[southsider2k5]

And yesterdays Trib in the Op-Ed section

 

As the Democrats enter the final stages of their primary race, the emerging story is how the Republicans are preparing to go negative in the general election with a campaign of singular viciousness against John Kerry.

 

Kerry's spokespeople have already sounded the alarm, warning darkly that "the right-wing smear machine" is gearing up, and declaring amusingly that "it's time for George W. Bush to call off his right-wing slime machine."

 

 

 

 

When exactly was it called on? No matter. A CNN anchor dutifully picks up the theme, noting "how ugly this is turning so early on."

 

Republicans turning ugly?

 

You are an average citizen following the election campaign so far. What have you gleaned from the wall-to-wall cable news coverage of the candidates' debates, rallies and victory/concession speeches?

 

First, that President Bush has "deceived" (Al Sharpton), "misled" (John Kerry, Howard Dean), indeed, outright "lied" (Dennis Kucinich) us into a pointless and ruinous war that, as Kerry's chief campaign surrogate, Edward Kennedy, thunders, was "made up in Texas" for pure political advantage. Hence, Bush's hands are dripping with the blood of the 500 or so brave soldiers who died for a lying president seeking better poll numbers.

 

Second, that his own personal military service was dishonorable: AWOL from the Air National Guard, declares Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe; perhaps even a "deserter," the charge that Wesley Clark repeatedly refused to repudiate.

 

And these are just Bush's depredations abroad. At home, as John Edwards tells it at every campaign stop, there are little girls from the "other America" crying into the night because their dads, now with the blank stare of hopelessness on their faces, have lost their jobs. Why? So that "Ken Lay and his boys" (Dean) and other friends of this president could make obscene profits for their outsourcing "Benedict Arnold companies" (Kerry). And that's while Bush was at the same time despoiling the water, polluting the air and, by God, trying to kill the Arctic caribou to please his parasitic oil industry pals and to fatten up Halliburton.

 

Vote him out? Given all that, shouldn't the man be drawn and quartered? Rarely has there been a political assault more concentrated, more unrelenting, more unrebutted--all occurring not as political advertising but on free media as campaign "coverage."

 

Part of this is serendipity. After Dean and Richard Gephardt destroyed each other with mutually negative ads in Iowa, the other candidates became terrified of saying anything even mildly negative about their opponents. They directed all of their fire not inside the corral, as is usual in a primary battle, but outside--at the president. The main competition among the candidates consisted of who could be more hyperbolic in delineating the crimes of George W. Bush.

 

Part of this, too, is the candidates' exploitation of media conventions. The cable channels all covered the Tuesday night victory/concession speeches, which the candidates invariably turned into opportunities to deliver their stump speeches to a national cable audience. Dean's Iowa scream is the counterexample that makes the case. The rule is: Forget the crowd, face the camera and denounce the president.

 

And now, after six weeks of carpet-bombing Bush, the Democrats are shocked--shocked!--that the Republicans might answer back with "negativity."

 

What, in fact, have the Republicans mustered? A single Internet ad about Kerry, the Senate's king of special interest money, denouncing special interests. And one speech by the Republican National Committee chairman on Kerry's conventional liberal (i.e. budget-cutting) positions on defense and intelligence.

 

The GOP has yet to go after Kerry on his most critical vulnerability, his breathtaking penchant for reversing course for political convenience:

 

- Votes against the Gulf war, which he now says he favored.

 

- Votes for the Iraq war, which he now says he opposed.

 

- Votes against the $87 billion for troop support and Iraqi reconstruction, while saying that he favors troop support and Iraqi reconstruction.

 

- Votes for No Child Left Behind, which he now attacks incessantly.

 

- Votes for the North American Free Trade Agreement; now rails against the unfairness of free trade.

 

- Votes for the USA Patriot Act; now decries the assault on civil liberties.

 

Which is why Kerry prefers to pre-empt any examination of his record by warning in advance of a coming Republican "smear campaign."

 

It would be a clever attempt at political insulation were it not so transparent. Instead, coming after weeks of unrelenting anti-Bush calumny, it is an impressive display of chutzpah. Kerry may or may not win the presidency, but he has already won the 2004 Captain Renault award.

[southsider2k5]

This guy is going to have a hard time separating himself from Bush, when all he has done is vote with Bush on Kerry's key issues. John Edwards would be much better for the dems, as at least he isn't going to be busy trying to explain away his voting record, while trying to critisize Bush for doing the samethings.

[FlaSoxxJim]

This guy is going to have a hard time separating himself from Bush, when all he has done is vote with Bush on Kerry's key issues.  John Edwards would be much better for the dems, as at least he isn't going to be busy trying to explain away his voting record, while trying to critisize Bush for doing the samethings.

Sadly, you are correct.

[mreye]

I love the Political season!