Posted on 10/29/2004 5:46:57 PM PDT by ambrose
Bush Rejects Bin Laden Tape, Hits Kerry
Fri Oct 29, 2004 08:28 PM ET
By Steve Holland
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - President Bush vowed on Friday the United States will not be intimidated by a pre-election warning from Osama Bin Laden and called Democrat John Kerry "shameful" for accusing him of bungling the search for the al Qaeda leader.
The bin Laden tape eerily offered a flashback to the Sept. 11 events that changed Bush's presidency on a day he was recalling the emotions of the moment. It also served to remind Americans that the man Bush once wanted "dead or alive" is apparently alive and well and threatening new attacks.
Kerry claims Bush let bin Laden get away in the mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001 by delegating the search for him to Afghan warlords instead of U.S. special forces.
A Bush supporter, retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who was head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan at the time, has rejected Kerry's argument by saying U.S. intelligence indicated bin Laden could have been in several countries at the time.
"This is the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking," Bush said of Kerry's attack. "It is especially shameful in light of the new tape by America's enemy."
White House communications director Dan Bartlett said the fact that Kerry's advisers raised the Tora Bora issue shortly after the tape appeared was a sign that "this race is slipping away" from Kerry.
"You would think that somebody would maybe pause for a moment to let the American people absorb what is going on," Bartlett said.
Bush got a boost from one of the country's most popular Republicans, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The two men appeared together in Ohio, a state Bush needs badly and where polls show a neck-and-neck race.
"I'm here to pump you up to re-elect President Bush," Schwarzenegger, the former body builder, told more than 15,000 roaring supporters in Columbus after recalling he won the 1970 Mr. World muscle competition in Ohio.
"You are the power-lifters for Ohio, and you are the power-lifters for America. America is counting on you ... Now is the time for you to flex your muscles for bold leadership, for a strong economy and for a secure nation," Schwarzenegger said.
Bush said he and Schwarzenegger had three things in common: They both married well, do not speak good English and, "We've both got big biceps. Well, two out of three ain't bad."
Schwarzenegger gave a speech at the Republican nominating convention for Bush but since then has been absent from the campaign trail.
In Manchester, New Hampshire, a state Bush won in 2000 but is in danger of losing to Kerry, Bush appeared with several relatives of some of the 3,000 Americans killed on Sept. 11.
"This nation must never forget their pain," he said.
Among family members who joined the president at the rally was the father of Todd Beamer, who was on board the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania after a passenger mutiny believed led by Beamer.
As Bush introduced the mother of a New York Port Authority police officer killed at the World Trade Center, a machine that was to blast confetti into the air at the end of the event went off prematurely with a loud, startling bang.
Bush flinched and paused, then resumed his speech as the confetti fell around him.
On the flight to Manchester, Bush had been told by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice that there were reports of a new bin Laden tape but he did not mention it until the video appeared on news channels.
"Let me make this very clear, Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country," he said in Toledo, Ohio.
"I'm sure Sen. Kerry agrees with this," he said. "I also want to say to the American people that we're at war with these terrorists and I am confident that we will prevail."
Bush's response to the Sept. 11 crisis sent his approval ratings skyrocketing as the country rallied around him, but the ratings soured when an Iraqi insurgency turned against U.S. troops. (Additional reporting by Adam Entous)
"rejects" is an intentionally misleading verb. in what way did he "reject" the tape? he "rejected" the message on the tape, but that's a very different thing.
Did the President really "hits" Kerry, or is that more squishy, parabolic feeeeeeling on the part of a Reuters poet?
The Reuters poet should have known that the crowd was 25k and not "more than 15,000".
I consider Reuters to be one of the worst offenders.....
This OBL tape is the real October surprise. Coordinated by the far more able and intelligent cabal of Islamfascism. The RATs have shot their wad and are greatful for the assistance.
They're all destined for hell.
"They're all destined for hell"
Amen, brother. Hopefully the US Military with GWB as CIC will speed these murdering thugs to their maker sooner than later.
God Bless Our Troops
> Reuters, AP, Yahoo are all as bad as the lamerstream lettered networks.
Reuters leads the pack.
Isn't Reuters the wireservice whose dictionary excludes
the word "terrorist" except when they can't avoid it in
a direct quote, as above?
absolutely, my brother called me from the parking lot and said the place was packed the stands alone hold 20K and the floor was also full. What do you expect from this leftist news agency anyway?
The OBL Tape is not an "assistance" for the Kerry campaign. It is going to help Bush according to all the pundits I've heard.
I "reject" anything AL-Reuters says.
The tape will hurt Kerry and this is my opinion (not that I am all that smart, but here it is): This is the best they have, the other tape and the Bin Laden tape. If they could have hit us they would have. They didn't release a tape before they bombed Spain, they didn't release one before they hit the trade towers and they wouldn't release one now if they could actually launch an attack. This is a last ditch attempt to help Kerry, but they no understanding what-so-ever of the american people...we don't ( at least the conservatives) run from threats.
"The OBL Tape is not an "assistance" for the Kerry campaign."
I'm saying that it was 'thought' to be an assist.
That is, if OBL threatened American because of a Bush victory, we were all supposed to cave. That comes from a communal mentality like that of the Islamic swine and the RAT communes.
In reality, sh*t like that don't do diddly squat for Americans. Don't like our cookin'? We'll kiss my @ss!
Agreed.
The media is splashing it all over that an attack can be avoided if Bush loses...little do they realize this is helping Bush because Americans will never cower to him. The media is so out of touch.
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