This is great to print out and distribute as widely as possible, as many of us are doing now. It's a good, quick way to help get through to some of our thicker-skulled voters who are unaware of the anti-gun, and anti-hunting stance of Kerry.
Posted on 10/14/2004 1:27:22 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
NRA makes bang for Bush
MUNDY TWP.
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Joe Lawlor
MUNDY TWP. -- In the home county of liberal, anti-gun filmmaker Michael Moore, the National Rifle Association endorsed President Bush for re-election, promising him millions of dollars in ads, phone banks and other efforts.
NRA leaders chose the Flint area for one of several news conferences in the Midwest to announce their endorsement Wednesday of Bush, citing Michigan as a battleground state with many gun owners and hunters.
Wayne LaPierre, the group's powerful executive vice president, said Bush is a true supporter of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms, while Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry is a phony.
During the campaign, Kerry has said he supports the Second Amendment. Commercials show the Massachusetts senator hunting in a field, a portrayal that made LaPierre scoff.
"He's a Cape Cod fraud who poses with a shotgun," LaPierre said in his trademark blunt style.
But LaPierre said it's a ruse because Kerry has consistently supported gun control measures.
"If John Kerry supports the Second Amendment, then maybe Al Gore really did invent the Internet," said LaPierre, speaking at the Holiday Inn in Mundy Township.
Bush supports legislation to protect the firearms industry from lawsuits and opposes centralizing files on gun owners, LaPierre said, calling the difference between Bush and Kerry on guns "day and night."
LaPierre said it was a coincidence the NRA chose to make the announcement on Davison native Moore's home turf. The group frequently has been a subject in Moore's movies, such as the anti-gun "Bowling for Columbine." "I wish I had thought of that," LaPierre said, when asked about Moore. The NRA also held news conferences in Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The Journal could not reach Moore for comment.
But Paul Rozycki, a political science professor at Mott Community College, said he thinks the NRA's choice was intentional. "Bowling for Columbine" criticized the NRA, and the filmmaker interviewed NRA President Charlton Heston.
"I think the choice of Flint was a counterpoint to Moore," Rozycki said.
Rozycki said people shouldn't brush off the NRA endorsement because gun issues matter in the presidential election. The organization has some 4 million members.
"Gore lost in places where the NRA had an impact like West Virginia, Tennessee and the U.P.," Rozycki said.
Randy Dresback of Groveland Township, an NRA member, watched the news conference, and he said he immediately recognized Kerry as a fake.
"A leopard doesn't change his spots," Dresback said.
The NRA's political action committee already has spent about $1 million on TV commercials and other ads opposing Kerry. The NRA plans to spend about $20 million in all, focused on 10 to 15 targeted states.
Kerry's campaign has derided the NRA's leaders as tools of the Republican Party and said they are out of touch with their membership.
Kerry has been endorsed by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which is helping finance anti-Bush television ads.
He's with the electrical union.
He, as your friend, says he's voting for the poodle because he's a Nam vet. That, however, doesn't explain his two votes for Clinton.
Some people are just hopeless.
This is great to print out and distribute as widely as possible, as many of us are doing now. It's a good, quick way to help get through to some of our thicker-skulled voters who are unaware of the anti-gun, and anti-hunting stance of Kerry.
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