“I think there is a naïve view among Democrats that what you have to do is ‘demonstrate a vision and tell the truth’ and you win. Republicans know that you need to tear your opponent’s heart out, chew it up and spit it out."
- Charles Cook, U.S. independent political analyst.
From the Toronto Star.
Posted by Dennis at September 20, 2004 09:51 PMGreat observation by Marc Sandalow in today's San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/23/MNGQK8TI8O1.DTL
The upshot:
Before the war, Kerry and Bush were like-minded on why it was necessary to give the president the authority to go to war. I personally don't agree with it, but both Kerry and Bush thought it was a powerful bargaining chip that would give the U.S. leverage in disarming Iraq.
Despite the Republican spin, Kerry's pre-war position has not changed nor, if you will, "flip-flopped." And at the time, it was also the opinion of George W. Bush (see below). If Kerry AND Bush's identical pre-war position is now being used by Bush against Kerry -- that's, uh, that's..well I don't know what it is, but calling Bush a "flip-flopper" would be kind.
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Kerry, who was one of 29 Democratic senators to support the resolution (giving Bush authority to use force in Iraq), said the vote was appropriate to strengthen the president's hand in negotiations, and he draws a distinction between his vote and an endorsement of the March 2003 attack.
"Congressional action on this resolution is not the end of our national debate on how best to disarm Iraq,'' Kerry said on the eve of the vote. "Nor does it mean we have exhausted all of our peaceful options to achieve this goal.''
Republicans ridicule such distinctions and use Kerry's vote as the basis for their assertion that Kerry once favored the war.
"He voted for it,'' said Republican national chairman Ed Gillespie when asked Wednesday to back the charge that Kerry supported the war. "Look at the coverage at the time, it was pretty clear what was going on.''
Yet in the fall of 2002, several months before the air strikes on Baghdad began, Bush himself insisted the vote was not the same as a declaration of war but instead gave him the hand he needed to negotiate the peace.
"If you want to keep the peace, you've got to have the authorization to use force,'' Bush said in September 2002. "It's a chance for Congress to say, 'we support the administration's ability to keep the peace.' That's what this is all about.''
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This proves what a good Christian Bush is... Jesus said the very same thing. Jeremiah 29:11: "Saith the LORD, "If you want to keep the peace, you've got to have the authorization to use force.''
Posted by: Katzen Jammer at September 23, 2004 05:55 PMI've mentioned this to Dennis before, but it seems that many times both sides attack eachother in a way that leaves out the humanity of the other. This statement along with buttons I've seen that equate Bush to Hitler and those on the other side that say "But if they take away our guns how can we shoot liberals?", are really too bad.
Posted by: Scott Schumacher at September 21, 2004 12:13 PMFor some reason, an awful lot of us tend to vote on "image" rather than "substance". I think it's because we either don't have the time to do the leg work or because we've decided to meet our responsibilities as citizens on the cheap.
The prediliction to vote on image encourages the downward spiral of viciousness - the viciousness is now being imbued into the rank and file - it comes from the party leadership, the campaigns, the media, the blogs and God forgive us, now our churches.
Posted by: dorsano at September 20, 2004 11:23 PMthe dnc and the cbs news station where working to smear bush proof
Joe Lockhart (Kerry Campaign Advisor sent by Clinton) admits calling Burkett 3 days before the CBS story broke
Posted by: gop at September 20, 2004 11:00 PMThat explains why politicians never provide answers to today's problems. That also explains why people with solutions never get elected or never run. Too bad the American people do not hold candidates accountable for solutions instead of accepting "mud".
Posted by: Bob Faust at September 20, 2004 10:46 PM