Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) (L) and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry walk to their car after attending mass at St. Francis Chapel in Boston, Massachusetts.(AFP/Luke Frazza)
Posted on 09/19/2004 6:50:50 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) was set to step up attacks on George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq (news - web sites) war, as the president prepared to go to the United Nations (news - web sites) to unveil new proposals help rebuild the country.
In a new television advertisement six weeks before the November 2 election, Kerry accused Bush of diverting resources needed at home to fight the war in Iraq.
"Two hundred billion dollars. That is what we are spending in Iraq because George Bush (news - web sites) chose to go it alone. Now the president tells us we dont have the resources to take care of health care and education here at home," Kerry says in the spot.
Kerry has struggled to make up ground lost to Bush with recent opinion polls giving the president a double-digit edge, but the US senator but reminded supporters in his home town of Boston Saturday that he has pulled out come-from-behind victories in past hard-fought elections.
"When I get in a fighting mood towards the end of September and towards the beginning of October, I think you know what happens here," Kerry told an enthusiastic crowd, adding that he already feels "the October juices flowing."
A Knight Ridder/MSNBC poll released Saturday shows that a plurality of voters in the five swing states of Missouri, Arizona, New Hampshire, Ohio, West Virginia support Bush over Kerry.
Nearly 80 percent of voters in each state said they weren't concerned about how each candidate served during the Vietnam War, and a clear majority said they favored a ban on gay marriage.
Bush's decision to go to war on Iraq was more controversial: a narrow majority of voters in four states approved, while voters in West Virginia narrowly disapproved.
The poll, conducted between September 14-16, has a plus or minus four point margin of error.
Bush narrowly carried those five states in the 2000 election.
There are about 15 states that are not yet firmly in the Democratic or Republican camp for the November vote, according to polls.
Kerry's s campaign was to launch Monday's new ad campaign as Bush comes under fresh criticism for refusing to own up to the explosion of violence that has left more than 400 dead in Iraq this month alone.
The Washington Post published a blistering editorial calling Bush's description of the unrest in Iraq "bland to the point of dishonesty."
"Not only has Mr. Bush not said how, or whether, he intends to respond to the worsening situation -- he doesn't really admit it exists," the Post said.
"This duck-and-cover strategy may have its political advantages, but it is also deeply irresponsible and potentially dangerous," the Post wrote.
The paper said Bush's record is "one of courage in setting goals and steadfastness in sticking to them but also one of extraordinary recklessness and incompetence in execution."
Despite daily attacks that have pushed the US miltary death toll past 1,000 in Iraq, Bush said: "I'm pleased with the progress.
"It's hard. Don't get me wrong. It's hard because there are some in Iraq who want to disrupt the election and disrupt the march to democracy, which should speak to their fear of freedom," he told The Union Leader newspaper in New Hampshire.
"Iraq has a strong prime minister" in Ayad Allawi and "there is a national council set up and they're going to have elections in January," he said in an interview published Sunday.
Bush also raised questions for the first time about documents used to bolster a report that he received preferential treatment during his Vietnam era military service.
"There are a lot of questions about the documents and they need to be answered," Bush told the paper.
"I think what needs to happen is people need to take a look at the documents, how they were created, and let the truth come out," he said.
Bush's military record has drawn new attention because of allegations his family used its influence to get him into the Texas Air National Guard and avoid seeing combat in the Vietnam War.
While the documents used by CBS have been called into question, media studies of Bush's military records -- which the White House has only grudgingly released -- found that Bush fell short of fulfilling his obligations and that senior aides misrepresented his service.
The White House has countered any and all suggestions that Bush missed drills or otherwise ducked assignments by pointing to his honorable discharge from the guard in 1973.
Bush has not denied the specific charges in the documents, but told the New Hampshire paper that "I did everything they asked me to do and met my requirements and was honourably discharged. I'm proud of my service in the Guard."
The US president will address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, with the crisis in Iraq mounting again amid almost daily attacks and the US military death toll now past 1,000.
Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday that he would talk about the need to "improve health, expand prosperity and extend freedom in our world."
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) (L) and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry walk to their car after attending mass at St. Francis Chapel in Boston, Massachusetts.(AFP/Luke Frazza)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry greet people after they attended a Mass at Saint Francis Chapel at Prudential Center in Boston, Sunday, Sept. 19, 2004. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)
Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry (news - web sites), gestures during a rally, August 2004.(AFP/File/Hector Mata)
Kerry puts a price on the lives of our Childresn... In its latest attempt to hypnotize the American public the Kerry campaign has been targeting the cost of the war on terror in an effort to sway American voters. According to Kerry we have found a way to bring the war home, saying, "Bush's go-it-alone approach had cost billions of dollars that could have been spent on jobs, schools and health care." The very callousness of this statement shows that John Kerry has no plan to protect our children. Let the grim facts of Beslan Russia remind us that the enemies of freedom do not care about the Geneva Convention, terror is their creed. How can we as Americans let a man that by his very words associates the protection of the United States in terms of cost? His vote against the war appropriations bill and his latest barrage on the cost of the war make it clear that he places a monetary cost to the causes of Liberty and Freedom. America must never relent and we must bear and burden and pay any cost, to ensure the blessings of Liberty to our children. This is the core of our Constitution. How dare John Kerry put a price on the very lives of our children? What good are all the social and environmental programs in the world if you cannot enjoy them due to terror? In this election it is important for the American people to determine the next president based on the priorities that the leader will bring to the office and John Kerry's priorities are wrong for the future of America.
Ms. Cahill, get the Depends.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) speaks at the 126th National Guard Association of the United States General Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.(AFP/File/Luke Frazza)
"Now the president tells us we dont have the resources to take care of health care and education here at home," When did he tell us this, exactly?
I see the mediapressWHORES are tyring their best to pump up their RAT jerk! I know you clymers LURK here...IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN...your man sKerry is going to lose!!! NOBODY LIKES HIM...GET IT! He has the personality of a SKUNK!! W BY A LANDSLIDE!!! YEAH BABY!!
Will an intrepid reporter ask Kerry what he would do differently, other than run to Chirac?
> ... reminded supporters in his home town of Boston ...
Let's see. This is a major policy stake-in-the-ground
moment, and the candidate chooses his HOME STATE to
deliver it, and not some key battleground state?
Or is MA now a battleground state?
Perhaps he just wanted 2000 miles between himself
and Dan Rather when he made the statement.
Disclaimer: "policy stake-in-the-ground" should not be
mistaken for "firm", "resolved" or "irrevocable" in the
case of John Kerry.
Does it matter? He was in Vietnam for four months.
Merely trashing Bush over the issue continues to reinforce that Kerry has been all over the lot on Iraq.
Why is it when I see these two I see mind of a child in an adults' body X2.
I can't believe this scumbag is running for president as a war protester.
SCREW NATIONAL SECURITY!-VOTE KERRY/EDWARDS IN 04
This horsefaced POS is DOING nothing BUT encouraging the terrorists in Iraq to step up their actions there.. He should keep his stupid remarks off Iraq where a military conflict is ongoing.
If Kerry pursues this "strategy", the similarity between his past (treasonous) "antiwar" activities and their effects on the soldiers in Vietnam (North and South), and his current cavalier attitude to our soldiers' (and our Allies soldiers') sacrifices and accomplishments needs to be brought into sharp focus. Johnny is having a senior moment. He thinks that he can go back to his old Lefty activist days, just 'cause Mikey Moore and the Prince of Darkness, Wesley Clark, tell him it's okay. He doesn't realize that his new (former Clinton) advisors are trying to torpedo his campaign with this "tactic".
AH, AFP. French Govt. Press. NO WONDER it make ZERO sense.
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