Noted Now (ABCNEWS - THE NOTE - SLURS CHENEY)

ABCNEWS THE NOTE ^ | IDRATHERNOT

[IDRATHERNOT]

CHENEY DISTORTS KERRY DIANE SAWYER INTERVIEW: Cheney on Kerry in Duluth, MN: "When asked if he, knowing everything he knows now, would he have voted the way he did then. He said yes. This morning Diane Sawyer interviewed him on 'Good Morning America' and asked the same question, 'knowing everything you know now would you have voted that way,' and he said no. He's changed his mind on many occasions."

WHAT KERRY WAS ACTUALLY ASKED ON GMA TODAY: "Was the war in Iraq worth it?"

WHAT KERRY REALLY SAID: "It was a mistake to do what he did," Kerry said to ABC's Diane Sawyer, referring to President Bush's decision to start the war. "But we have to succeed now that we've done what he's -- I mean look -- we have to succeed."

[IDRATHERNOT]

THE NOTE claimed Cheney distorted Kerry's interview with Diane Sawyer when Cheney said "...This morning Diane Sawyer interviewed him on 'Good Morning America' and asked the same question, 'knowing everything you know now would you have voted that way,' and he said no."

To support this claim, THE NOTE performs a hatchet job and misquotes the very same transcript that they linked to.

So to correct the record above, what Kerry really, really said when asked "Was the war in Iraq worth it?" - Kerry's answer actually was "We should not have gone to war knowing the information we know today." They completely ERASE this answer and attempt to splice in pieces of his longwinded answer to a followup question.

In doing so, they even paraphrase his words in a half-hearted attempt to make his answer somehow more concise.

Read the transcript and compare THE NOTES renditionforgery yourself

[skaterboy]

How bout the NOTE go find a Gore voter who is voting for Bush

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

That's just bizarre. ABC got a major candidate to give a major flip flop on the most important issue of the election today. You'd think they'd be trumpeting their hard-hitting journalism department's abililty to cut to the truth and blah blah blah.

[Admin Moderator]

Don't alter the heading please. Thanks.

[prairiebreeze]

ABC had to suture together and bandage a bleeding sKerry after his sloppy performance on GMA.

Used to be that news media lived and breathed for those moments and highlighted them to present the candidate the public. Now, they just specialize in RAT trauma management.

Prairie

[mcg1969]

I challenge the Note to give us a coherent explanation of Kerry's true policy on Iraq, reconciling his statements over the past 2 years. I'll even cut them some slack and tell them they can ignore his hawkish positions in the Clinton administration.

[ForGod'sSake]

Funny thing about The Note; sometimes they actually get it right, but most of the time they don't. Like someone else said, bizarre behavior from these people. They can't be trusted because of their inconsistency.

FGS

[PMCarey]

To be fair and complete, Kerry has decided to thread this needle by claiming that there is a difference between his vote to give the President the authority to go to war and a vote to go to war. Thus he standby his vote to give Bush that authority, but Bush's decision to use that authority was wrong. It's a curious position because it is essentially agreeing to giving the President a blank check without claiming any responsibility if he decides to cash it. In fact, Kerry could claim credit if the war goes well (I gave him the authority!) or escape blame if the war goes poorly (he used that authority unwisely!)

This is not the stuff of leadership.

The way to unmask this bit of chicanery is to bring up the 1991 vote on the Persian Gulf war. This was essentially the same situation but with a far more immediate threat and a very large international coalition on board. Kerry voted against granting that authority. Thus under Kerry's own reasoning, he was voting against granting the President the authority to deal with an immediate crisis. How could he justify that vote in light of his vote in 2002, especially when he argues that the threat in 2002 was not imminent and did not involve world support? Defending the 1991 vote undermines the 2002 vote. Defending the 2002 vote undermines the 1991 vote.

If Bush presses this point, I imagine Kerry will try to thread an even smaller needle, at which point the public's collective head will explode from excess spinning.