Posted on 08/13/2004 4:27:54 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Edwards responds to Cheney's criticism of Kerry
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press
8/13/2004, 4:14 p.m. ET
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A day after Vice President Dick Cheney criticized John Kerry, Democratic Sen. John Edwards defended his running mate on Friday, saying he "spilled his blood for the United States" and accusing the Republican of distorting Kerry's words.
Cheney told voters in Ohio Thursday that Kerry had called for a "more sensitive" war on terror and mocked that notion as something that won't impress the Sept. 11 terrorists or the Islamic militants who have beheaded U.S. citizens.
Edwards, returning to the campaign after a three-day break, took issue with Cheney's comments and his target — Democratic presidential nominee Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran.
"He took that word and distorted and tried to use it to argue John Kerry will not keep the American people safe," Edwards said during a campaign stop in Flint. "He's talking about a man who still carries shrapnel in his body. He's talking about a man who spilled his blood for the United States of America."
At a minority journalists' convention last week, Kerry said: "I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history."
Edwards on Friday also discussed his 2002 vote to give President Bush the military authority to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"I think it was correct to give the president the authority that he was given," Edwards said in an interview with The Associated Press following the event. "I think the president has misused and abused the authority he was given. ... And the American people, our troops, the American taxpayers have paid dearly as a result."
Kerry said this week he stands by his vote despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. But the four-term Massachusetts senator added that Bush used the authority poorly, rushing to war with limited allied support and little thought to an end game.
Edwards' visit to Flint focused on issues polls show are even higher than security on Michigan voters' list of concerns: jobs and the economy.
"What it is is an effort to distract, not to talk about the problems here in Flint, Michigan," the North Carolina senator told the audience of more than 1,000, who gathered in a drizzling rain outside Mott Community College.
Prior to the rally, Edwards held a front-porch meeting with some Flint voters.
One was Susan Duffiny, who was laid off in 2002 from her factory job in Auburn Hills. The Flint woman was retrained as a computer network administrator but has yet to land a job in that field.
"I'm sure there are a lot of people in trouble who don't have health care," Duffiny told Edwards.
"Oh, I can tell you there are a lot of people in trouble," Edwards told her. "For us, jobs are a big issue."
Twenty-seven percent of likely Michigan voters surveyed recently by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA said improving the economy and providing jobs was their biggest concern, nearly twice as many as those listing health care or terrorism, which tied for second.
The state unemployment rate remains a full point above the national rate at 6.5 percent. Flint's unemployment rate was 14.5 percent in June, while the rate in surrounding Genesee County was 8.5 percent.
Help me to learn. Was EDWARDS in Vietnam? He would have been of draftable age during the time. Did he get a deferrment?
Spilled blood from his butt pimple wound? I didn't think it was that bad.
Matthews seems to be going completely bonkers, he doesn't even bother to make the remotest sense any more.
I seem to recall that Edwards was in deferrment world during Vietnam. Not sure of the details though.
Since Kerry claims they pulled the shrapnel out in an interview he gave.....This is going to come back on them.
ONCE AGAIN, DEMS HAVE MADE KERRY VIETNAM EXPERIENCE AN ISSUE....
So they should not complain when the Swifties expose the truth about that service.
KERRY.....WANN TALK ABOUT NAM? RELEASE YOUR RECORDS!
Ok, one PH was from shrapnel from a grenade launcher that he shot too close to the beach. The PH was illegitimate because is was self inflicted and I'm not sure if he was under fire. Somebody testified the shrapnel was sticking in his skin, they pulled it out and put a bandaid on it.
Another PH was a concussion grenade he put in a pile of rice, also self inflicted, and I'm not sure if he was under fire then either. Someone testified they picked the rice out of his butt with tweezers. (eeeeewwwwww)
Another PH was for bruising his arm when the mines hit PCF3. At least he was under fire that time, but I don't think I'd award a PH for a bruise.
Am I missing something?
Where's the shrapnel?
Well, you got the first two letters right...
.....or the next 3
"I seem to recall that Edwards was in deferrment world during Vietnam. Not sure of the details though."
Believe he graduated from high school in 1971.
The point is, he's a small town southern boy who, until he was elected Senator from NC (where he has done little for the people who elected him) had no executive leadership experience, no experience in government, no experience with the military, and has never met a payroll or learned anything about creating productivity and wealth in an economy.
He did learn, during his law practice, that you can ACQUIRE a lot of wealth quickly. He did this by pretending to be for the "little people," knowing full well that if he won lawsuits, the bulk of the award would go to the lawyer. Meanwhile, thousands of people's insurance premiums and other costs would go up to pay for the wealth transfer into his bank account.
Now, he wants to promise help for the "little people" with taxpayer dollars (using government taxing power to take the hard-earned dollars of many for the benefit of others) in exchange for votes. Trading promises for votes is how unscrupulous politicians attain power.
Let him go out on this Vietnam hero limb as far as he is willing to go. Perhaps he has hitched his wagon to the wrong star.
Yeah, but what they don't tell you is, that it was RICE, and everyone knows that RICE is very hard to get rid of.
I'm sure I spilled more blood during childbirth than Kerry ever has.
sick,but funny...
X-ray, please. And be forewarned: rice won't show up on one...
Shrapnel. You know. Little things about the size of rice.
Becki
The significance of a military career is the insight it gives into the character of a man, and what kind of man he will be in a position wartime leadership.
We already know what kind of man Bush is, we know precisely what kind of leader he is and we know exactly how he will conduct the war. He will do exactly what he says he will do, and he will chase our enemies into their caves and put them out of business, whatever it takes. We know that.
We also know what kind of man Kerry is, and we know what he will do as commander in chief by his own words. He will look to the UN and the EU for leadership. He will attempt to trade Iraqi oil for French approval. He will pull US troops out of the theater as quickly as possible. Within 6 months, I think he said.
He will sign the Kyoto treaty, if France still wants him to. He will sign the ICC agreement. He will place US troops under international control. Bush won't do any of those things.
I don't think there is any doubt what either of them will do as commander in chief. At the level of foreign policy, this election couldn't be more clear cut.
He's full of something else that begins with "sh."
Kerry is full of:
a. Scrapple
b. shrapnel
c. crapola
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.