Kerry, Bush spar over 'Mission accomplished'

The Washington Post ^ | September 27, 2004 | Lois Romano and Mike Allen

[justaboutanybody]

MADISON, WIS. -- Sen. John Kerry excoriated President Bush on Sunday for saying that he had no regrets about his declaration more than a year ago that the mission in Iraq was accomplished, when the country continues to be in a state of war.

"I will never be a president who just says, 'Mission accomplished.' I will get the mission accomplished," Kerry told a couple of hundred supporters who greeted him in Madison before he went to a Spring Green resort to prepare for a presidential debate Thursday.

Kerry was referring to an interview Bush gave Bill O'Reilly of Fox News in which O'Reilly asked Bush if he would still do the carrier landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln beneath the "Mission Accomplished" banners. At the time, 17 months ago, Bush had referred to Iraq as a "victory" and declared an end to major combat there.

"Absolutely," the president replied in the interview, to air on today's "O'Reilly Factor." O'Reilly, apparently surprised, replied, "You would?"

"Of course," Bush said. "I'm saying to the troops, on this carrier and elsewhere, 'Thanks for serving America.' Absolutely. And by the way, those sailors and airmen loved seeing the commander in chief. ... You bet I'd do it again."

In Madison, Kerry held a rally on the tarmac and ridiculed Bush for "insisting that the situation [in Iraq] is improving, that freedom is on the march. ... The president continues to live in a fantasy world of spin."

Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, also mocked Bush on Sunday, telling 1,500 raucous supporters in Lewiston, Maine, that "these people are so out of touch."

[AFPhys]

...we all know how a hypothetical Kerry president would have handled this. He would have windsurfed out to meet the Lincoln & then told the USS Lincoln crowd ''You didn't do squat.''

That is a GREAT retort to the Demodogs... Maybe even a bumper sticker battle point...

BUSH: "Mission Accomplished"

sKERRY: "You didn't do squat"

Which Supports Our Troops?

[AgThorn]

Bush did not say "mission accomplished". In the interveiw Bush said that the banner referred to the aircraft carrier having accomplished it's mission.

Absolutely. My son was on that carrier and my wife and I gave up a 'tiger trip' where we were supposed to join him from Hawaii to San Diego. The fact that the Abe never made it back to Hawaii as planned, being turned back from the south of Australia to go to Iraq for the war effort, made my son and thousands of our other dedicated sailors on that ship have a severely extended 'at sea' engagement of 11 months.

that "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" message was a home coming thank you from thier commander in chief. Something well earned and quite appropriate for all those serving on board and on other returning ships after the major war effort they were participating in.

I guess, if you follow the logic of the democrat spit wadders like Kerry, we should never feel that we accomplished anything in Korea since that is still not resolved and any end of the war celebration after WWII should have waited 15 more years for the Marshall plan to be assuredly locked in.

[Martin Tell]

Kerry walks into a gay bar....

sKerry is so inept he can't even score in a gay bar:

"It's not my fault I couldn't score. There must have been five guys for every guy there."