Posted on 10/07/2004 2:14:44 PM PDT by Pikamax
Kerry: Bush 'Aggrandized, Fictionalized' Saddam Thu Oct 7, 2004 05:04 PM ET
By Patricia Wilson ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (Reuters) - Democratic challenger John Kerry ripped into President Bush on Thursday for a pattern of deception on Iraq that made up Saddam Hussein as a threat to the United States.
On the eve of their second debate, the Massachusetts senator previewed the tack he plans to take when he and Bush meet on Friday night in St. Louis, accusing his Republican rival of emboldening terrorists, leaving the United States more vulnerable and living in a state of denial.
Citing a CIA report that showed Iraq destroyed its banned weapons supplies months after the first Gulf War in 1991 and its capacity to produce biological, chemical or nuclear arms had eroded by the time Bush ordered the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Kerry assailed the president for twisting facts and for failing to be "straight" with Americans.
"We remember the pieces of evidence, like aluminum tubes and Niger yellow cake uranium, that were laid out before us," he said. "All designed, all purposefully used to shift the focus ... from the real enemy, al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, to an enemy that they aggrandized and fictionalized."
"All put forward with an urgency requiring immediate action before another attack on the United States," he said.
Kerry described Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as being in "absolute full spin mode" in trying to reconcile the CIA report with their prewar claim that Saddam was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction that could threaten the United States or fall into the hands of terrorists.
"The president of the United States and the vice president of the United States may well be the last two people on the planet who won't face the truth about Iraq," he said.
Americans deserved more than "spin" about the Iraq war, Kerry said. "They deserve facts that represent reality, not carefully polished arguments and points that are simply calculated to align with a preconceived perception."
HINTS AT NEW LINE
The Democrat, who most Americans believe bested Bush in the first debate of the presidential campaign last week, hinted at a new line of attack for Friday's town hall session in Missouri. He said that Bush's "pattern of deception goes beyond Iraq" and citing as one example the president's failure to fully fund his own education reforms.
But it was on Iraq that Kerry tested out some of his toughest attack lines, even suggesting that Bush might have created another Lebanon -- which was torn by civil war in the 1970s and 1980s.
Vowing to follow the U.S. military's advice on whether more troops might be needed to quell the chaos and insurgency in Iraq, Kerry said he would have to wait until Jan. 20 -- the date of the next presidential inauguration -- before making any decision.
"I don't know what I'm going to find on January 20th the way the president is going," he said. "If the president just does more of the same every day and it continues to deteriorate, I may be handed Lebanon, figuratively speaking. I just don't know, I can't tell you."
Kerry told reporters the CIA report and remarks by the former administrator for Iraq Paul Bremer that the United States had sent too few troops provided "definitive evidence" as to why Bush should not be re-elected.
"Whether it's the situation in Iraq or whether it's the situation here in America, he is not being straight with Americans," Kerry said. "I will never mislead the American people. The president has not met that standard."
From the MORON who commited TREASON>
Wait a minute--isn't this from the guy who said Saddam deserves his own personal place in Hell or something like that?
They are going to go crazy the next few weeks over that ridiculous WMD report.
something like that, Kerry is again betting on the MSM NOT to show clips of him talking about Saddam.
I am sooooooooooo damn sick of Kerry and Edwards spinning this tired, drawn out talking point.
Oops.
This should be a slam dunk for Bush -- Kerry must be delusional if he thinks Saddam was a fictional character
HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS: yes I know how he meant it but still....
Kerry is lying and the press goes right along with it as usual. What can be done about this?
The typical Democrat tactic: Accuse your opponent of what you yourself are doing.
http://www.kerryoniraq.com
Kerry is one of the most deeply disturbing candidates in the history of American politics. The true Manchurian Candidate, playing simultaneously off of left wing conspiracy hysteria and the darker isolationist tendencies in America -- while I have my issues with the new Roth novel, can you imagine the Republican party succombing to Lindbergh v. the class of Wendell Willkie, who never exploited one bit the anti-war sentiment in this country.
Kerry and the dems are deeply dividing this nation on behalf of the trial lawyers, Hollywood tin gods, union bosses and other sundry other lowlife -- all for their own aggrandizment.
He made his name by smearing American servicemen and mouthing the VC propaganda line word for word. Now, he hopes to ride to the presidency on similar thoughts from our enemies.
Almost as repugnant as smearing Allawi, forgetting that Iraqis are every day fighting and dying for their nation --
I cannot think of a more repulsive individual today than John Kerry.
When Clinton won against GWB and Dole, I didn't care for Slick Willy, but I had the same "I guess I can live with him " feeling. He was corrupt and flawed, but he had some love for this country somewhere in his heart. Kerry has none ... he and his plutocrat crowd (Soros, Buffett, etc.) have made their nickel off of us by hook or crook and now want to rule American from an apartment in Paris.
Senator Heinz is turning over in his grave to think his fortune is being used to support a band of pure turncoats.
This maybe an obvious point but, if Bush knew there were not WMD's and went to war anyway, didn't he think it would come out at some point that there were no WMD's? He really believed the intelligence he and Senator Kerry recieved.
1) Start our own print newspaper: The FreeRepublic Leave out the liberal crap.
2) Become a 527 & start our own ads
3) Not a d*** thing. They've got us.
4) Pray that Kerry visits Washington State & that "Miss Helen" will decide to drop on him.
"This President is aggrandazing Saddam Hussein, when he should be aggrandizing me. I served in Viet Nam."
ag·gran·dize ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-grndz, grn-)
tr.v. ag·gran·dized, ag·gran·diz·ing, ag·gran·diz·es
To increase the scope of; extend.
To make greater in power, influence, stature, or reputation.
To make appear greater; exaggerate: aggrandize one argument while belittling another.
I HOPE THE BUSH CAMPAIGN IS WATCHING THIS - PLEASE GOD, LET BUSH REFER TO THIS STATEMENT TOMMORROW NIGHT!!!!
/rant
If the RATs can keep the focus on WMD, they will score points. If we can turn the debate just slightly and focus instead on whether or not we should have removed Saddam from power, the majority of the American people are on our side, and we come out ahead.
Watched this live.
Later he said Saddam was a threat and a reporter asked how he reconciled saying the WH "fictionalized" the threat and yet he was saying Saddam was a threat.
Kerry said he'd always said Saddam was a threat, sanctions were working and he ended the press conference.
This guy must have selective memory. Apparently he has forgotten all the things he (and Edwards) have said about Saddam from the 90's on up to the invasion in 2003.
"We remember the pieces of evidence, like aluminum tubes and Niger yellow cake uranium, that were laid out before us," he said. "All designed, all purposefully used to shift the focus ... from the real enemy, al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, to an enemy that they aggrandized and fictionalized."
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