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Date Posted: 23:12:49 09/29/04 Wed
Author: US NEWSWIRE
Subject: Ad Fact Check

KerryEdwards 2004: Bush-Cheney Ad Fact Check

9/27/2004 11:55:00 AM
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To: National Desk, Political Correspondent

Contact: Chad Clanton or Phil Singer, 202-464-2800, both of Kerry-Edwards 2004; Web: http://www.johnkerry.com

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by Kerry-Edwards 2004:

Kerry spokesman Phil Singer: "George Bush hasn't been straight with the American people about Iraq and he isn't being straight with them about John Kerry. The Bush campaign's misleading, false ads are aimed at covering up the wrong choices George Bush has made in Iraq and the fantasyland descriptions he uses to cover up his failure to deal with the violence on the ground."

THE FACTS:

AD TITLE: "Searching"

TYPE: 30sec TV

DATE: 9/27/04

"Misleader-in-Chief" Strikes Again - Takes Kerry's Words Out of Context

John Kerry: "It was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the President made the decision I supported him."

John Kerry: "I don't believe the President took us to war as he should have."

John Kerry: "The winning of the war was brilliant."

John Kerry: "It's the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

John Kerry: "I have always said we may yet even find weapons of mass destruction."

John Kerry: "I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars before I voted against it."

Quote (number) 1 - Out of Context

John Kerry: "It was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the President made the decision I supported him." Quote (number) 1 - In Context In May 2003, Kerry Called for More Diplomacy. George Stephanopoulos: "And Senator Kerry, the first question goes to you. On March 19th, President Bush ordered General Tommy Franks to execute the invasion of Iraq. Was that the right decision at the right time?" Senator John Kerry: "George, I said at the time I would have preferred if we had given diplomacy a greater opportunity, but I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the President made the decision, I supported him, and I support the fact that we did disarm him." (ABC News' Democrat Presidential Candidate Debate, Columbia, SC, 5/3/03)

Quote (number) 2 - Out of Context

Kerry said: "I don't believe the President took us to war as he should have."

Quote (number) 2 - In Context

In January 2004, Kerry Stated that the War Was Not Being Fought the Right Way.

Chris Matthews: "Do you think you belong to that category of candidates who more or less are unhappy with this war, the way it's been fought, along with General Clark, along with Howard Dean and not necessarily in companionship politically on the issue of the war with people like Lieberman, Edwards and Gephardt? Are you one of the anti-war candidates?" Senator John Kerry: "I am -- Yes, in the sense that I don't believe the president took us to war as he should have, yes, absolutely." (MSNBC's "Hardball," 1/6/04)

(Chris Matthews Asked the President to Stop Using the Misleading Clip)

Chris Matthews: "Let me ask you, Matt (Dowd, B-C '04 strategist), are you going to have the president stop saying that John Kerry, on our show, on HARDBALL, because that's what he was referring to, clearly, 220 days ago when he said this, are you going to get him to stop saying that John Kerry declared himself the anti-war candidate, which is clearly not what he said because I used the word anti-war candidate and I referred to a number of them? You say what he said on my show and he didn't say that. That's all I'm asking." (MSNBC, "Hardball," 8/16/04)

Quote (number) 3 - Out of Context

John Kerry: "The winning of the war was brilliant."

Quote (number) 3 - In Context

Kerry Said Bush Failed to Bring In An International Coalition In Order To Win The Peace. "MATTHEWS:...Senator Kerry join us now from New Hampshire. Senator Kerry, Riyadh, Casablanca, five times in Israel. All this terrorism. If you were president, how would you stop it? SENATOR JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, it's going to take some time to stop it, Chris, but we have an enormous amount of cooperation to build one other countries. I think the administration is not done enough of the hard work of diplomacy, reaching out to nations, building the kind of support network. I think they clearly have dropped the ball with respect to the first month in the after -- winning the war. That winning of the war was brilliant and superb, and we all applaud our troop for doing what they did, but you've got to have the capacity to provide law and order on the streets and to provide the fundamentally services, and I believe American troop will be safer and America will pay less money if we have a broader coalition involved in that, including the United Nations." (Hardball, 5/19/03)

Quote (number) 4 - Out of Context

John Kerry: "It's the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Quote (number) 4 - In Context

Kerry Said He Would Have Done Everything Differently. " Senator John Kerry and President Bush clashed repeatedly over Iraq on Monday, with Mr. Kerry branding it ''the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time'' and saying he wanted all American troops home within four years, while Mr. Bush defended the war as ''right for America then and it's right for America now.''...At day's end on Monday, Mr. Kerry told thousands at a rally that Mr. Bush ''wishes I have the same position he does, but as we've learned from this president, just wishing something, and saying something, doesn't make it so.''...''When it comes to Iraq, I would not have done just one thing differently, I would have done everything differently from this president,'' he added.... ''George Bush's wrongheaded, go-it-alone Iraq policy has cost you -- cost you -- already, over $200 billion,'' Mr. Kerry said in Cleveland. ''That's $200 billion we're not investing in Cleveland. That's $200 billion we're not investing in our schools and in No Child Left Behind, that's $200 billion we're not investing in health care for all Americans and prescription drugs that are affordable.''... ''The choice in this race is very simple,'' Mr. Kerry said. ''It's whether you want to continue to move in the wrong direction, or whether you want to turn it around and move the United States of America in the right direction and put people back to work.'' (NYT, 9/7/04)

Quote (number) 5 - Out of Context

John Kerry: "I have always said we may yet even find weapons of mass destruction."

Quote (number) 5 - In Context

Kerry Says Anything Is Possible, But We Didn't Do This The Right Way

"WALLACE: Excuse me, sir, if I could just bring this back to the events of today, though. I understand that some of your basic criticisms may stand, but isn't it in a realistic political sense going to be a much harder case to make to voters when you have that extraordinary mug shot of Saddam Hussein, the former brutal dictator, looking like he's been dragged into a police line-up?

KERRY: Absolutely not, because I voted to hold Saddam Hussein accountable. I knew we had to hold him accountable. There's never been a doubt about that. But I also know that if we had done this with a sufficient number of troops, if we had done this in a globalized way, if we had brought more people to the table, we might have caught Saddam Hussein sooner. We might have had less loss of life. We would be in a stronger position today with respect to what we're doing. Look, again, I repeat, Chris, I have always said we may yet even find weapons of mass destruction. I don't know the answer to that. We will still have to do the job of rebuilding Iraq and resolving the problem between Shias and Sunnis and Kurds. There are still difficult steps ahead of us." (Fox News Sunday, 12/14/03)

Quote (number) 6 - Out of Context

John Kerry: "I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars before I voted against it."

Quote (number) 6 - In Context

Kerry Was Talking About How To Pay For The Bill In A Fiscally Responsible Way "I actually did vote for his $87 billion, before I voted against it," he told a group of veterans at a noontime appearance at Marshall University. He went on to explain that he preliminarily backed the request, so long as it was financed not by deficit spending but with a tax surcharge on the wealthy that Bush opposed." (Washington Post, 3/17/04)

George Bush's Broken Promises on the $87 Billion in Funding for Iraq

PROMISE: Bush Would Not Back Down on "Supporting Our Troops in Combat."

REALITY: White House Threatened to Veto $87 Billion if Congress Made the Funds a Loan. George Bush repeatedly says on the campaign trail that "There is nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat." But "The White House threatened ... to veto its own spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan if Congress made reconstruction aid a loan, taking its most forceful stand on the issue even as more lawmakers supported a reimbursement by Iraq. ... 'If this provision is not removed, the president's senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill,' Joshua B. Bolten, the White House budget director, wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders." (Bush remarks, 9/13/04; New York Times, 10/22/03)

PROMISE: $87 Billion Would Go for New Equipment and Armored Vehicles.

REALITY: Bush Still Slow To Address Troops' Need For Body Armor. Though Bush promised to use the $87 billion to "acquire new equipment, such as armored Humvees and communications gear," he was slow to deliver on that pledge. The Bush Administration first promised all the troops they would have body armor at the end of November. They extended and missed deadlines for December, January, and February, until the Army Secretary told Congress in March 2004 that there were finally sufficient stocks of body armor to equip all soldiers by the end of the month. (Bush Remarks at Iraq Supplemental Bill Signing, 11/6/03; House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, 9/24/03; UPI, 12/3/03; Hartford Courant, 1/11/04; House Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcommittee, 2/12/04; Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, 3/2/04)

PROMISE: $87 Billion Would "Cover" Iraq and Afghanistan War Costs.

REALITY: Bush Authorized Additional $25 Billion for Iraq - And Will Ask for More Than $25 Billion Next Year. George Bush told America that the $87 billion funding request "will cover ongoing military and intelligence operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, which we expect will cost $66 billion dollars over the next year." But Bush signed a $417.5 billion wartime defense bill in August 2004 that provided an additional $25 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. And "Wolfowitz told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the administration's second request for funds will come early next year. 'It will surely be much larger than $25 billion,' he said. That would bring the total requested so far for next year to over $50 billion. Many lawmakers of both parties have said they believe even that figure will ultimately prove short by many billions of dollars." (Bush remarks, 9/7/03; AP, 8/5/04 and 5/13/04)

PROMISE: Administration Needed Funds for Reconstruction.

REALITY: As Nearly All Reconstruction Funds Go Unspent, Bush Administration Seeks To Shift Funds To Security. In an indication of the Bush Administration's failure to plan for the increasing violence in post-war Iraq, the Bush Administration asked Congress to shift $3.4 from the reconstruction to the security of Iraq. The shift of funds "is a de facto recognition that (the occupation authority's) ambitious plans to restructure Iraq's entire economy have failed," said Anthony H. Cordesman, a security analyst at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies. According to U.S. officials, only $1.1 billion of the $18 billion reconstruction package authorized by Congress has been spent - and half of that was for security costs. (Washington Post, 9/15/04; Associated Press, 8/30/04; U.S. News & World Report, 9/20/04)

Independent Voices Confirm John Kerry's Consistent Position on Iraq

Time's Joe Klein: Kerry's Possesses "the Most Responsible" Iraq Position. "The most responsible position, which John Kerry has been suffering with for a year now, is that it was wrong for Bush to go to war in such a rush and unilaterally--but that it was right for members of Congress to send a signal of deep concern about the situation in Iraq to the United Nations and Saddam Hussein. In a perfect world, that signal would have been a lot more nuanced than the blank check Congress gave the President to go to war. But politics is, as often as not, a choice between the awful and the dreadful." (Joe Klein Column, Time, 9/29/03)

LA Times Ron Brownstein: Kerry's "Consistent Point", "Without Variance" on Iraq. "...(Kerry's) had one consistent point. Going back to his speech last September at The Brookings Institution, and really without variation since, he has argued that rather than trying to make these decisions that you talked about with Paul Bremer ourselves--what the new government is going to be, who's going to take over, who writes the constitution--we should turn over that entire process to the U.N. They should have the authority, both as a way of increasing legitimacy of the product inside Iraq and also as a means of bringing in more troops, possibly, to support our effort there." (NBC, Meet the Press, 4/11/04)

Fox News's Mara Liasson: "Kerry's Sticking to the Criticism He's Made All Along." "Kerry has been sticking to the criticism he's made all along, which is Bush made a mess of Iraq. He made a mess before we got there and he's making a mess after now. " (Fox News Channel, Special Report with Brit Hume, 9/8/03)

American Prospect: Kerry's Position Was Not an Endorsement of Bush's "Rush to War." "Democrats in Congress running for president, such as John Kerry, are now getting slammed as inconsistent for criticizing the war after voting to authorize force against Iraq. But Congress voted on the Iraq resolution as Bush was requesting that the United Nations Security Council issue an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein. The timing made it appear that anyone voting against the resolution was undermining the president's chance of obtaining a last-minute diplomatic solution. A vote for the resolution did not imply an endorsement of Bush's rush to war, though Kerry's vote is being represented that way." (Starr, American Prospect, October 2003)

Boston Globe's Oliphant: Kerry's Iraq Position Shows "He Was Speaking with the Clarity Expected of Presidents. The Boston Globe columnist Thomas Oliphant summed up his view of John Kerry's consistent position toward Iraq by saying Kerry was more than prescient; he was speaking with the clarity expected of presidents." Oliphant wrote: "I continue to be struck by something else in Kerry's rhetoric that is worth quoting: ''The Bush administration has a plan for waging war but no plan for winning the peace. It has invested mightily in the tools of destruction but meagerly in the tools of peaceful construction. It offers the people in the greater Middle East retribution but little hope for liberty and prosperity. 'What America needs today is a smarter, more comprehensive and far-sighted strategy for modernizing the greater Middle East. It should draw on all of our nation's strengths: military might, the world's largest economy, the immense moral prestige of freedom and democracy - and our powerful alliances.'' "Increasingly common words today, but Kerry spoke them more than six months ago, two months before the war began. Like others, I gave him guff then for seeming to fudge his support for the use of force; but also like others I failed to see the power of his thinking about the link between conflict and aftermath. On this, Kerry was more than prescient; he was speaking with the clarity expected of presidents." (Boston Globe, Oliphant column; 7/13/03)

Bush & Co. Have a Long, Proud History of Taking Kerry's Words Out of Context

Bush Makes Things Up Regularly. "There is one good thing about President Bush's new advertisement showing John Kerry windsurfing: Kerry does enjoy windsurfing. That alone puts the ad on a higher plane of truthfulness than many of the statements the president regularly makes on the campaign trail. A press corps that relentlessly nitpicked Al Gore in 2000 in search of "little lies" and exaggerations has given Bush wide latitude to make things up. I guess the incumbent benefits from the soft bigotry of low expectations." (E.J.Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 9/24/04)

Republican Attacks "At Best Selective and In Many Cases Stripped Of Their Context." "Speakers at this week's Republican convention have relentlessly attacked John F. Kerry for statements he has made and votes he has taken in his long political career, but a number of their specific claims -- such as his votes on military programs -- are at best selective and in many cases stripped of their context, according to a review of the documentation provided by the Bush campaign." (Washington Post, 9/3/04)

Bush Taking Campaign Into Dangerous Territory With Despicable Politics. "President Bush and his surrogates are taking their re- election campaign into dangerous territory...This is despicable politics." (Editorial, New York Times, 9/25/04)

Bush Tests Bounds of Political Rhetoric. "President Bush and leading Republicans are increasingly charging that Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry and others in his party are giving comfort to terrorists and undermining the war in Iraq -- a line of attack that tests the conventional bounds of political rhetoric." (Washington Post, 9/24/04)

AP: Bush Quoting Words Kerry Has Never Said. Bush "stated flatly that Kerry had said earlier in the week 'he would prefer the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today.' The line drew gasps of surprise from Bush's audience in a Racine, Wis., park. 'I just strongly disagree,' the president said. But Kerry never said that." (AP, 9/25/04)

Bush Mischaracterized Kerry's Words on Iraq. "Bush attacked Kerry for calling 'our alliance 'the alliance of the coerced and the bribed.' But Bush mischaracterized Kerry's criticism, which has not been aimed at the countries that have contributed a relatively small number of troops and resources, but at the administration for not gaining more participation from other nations." (AP, 9/25/04)

Republican Convention Speakers Take Kerry Statements Out of Context. "In his speech to the Republican National Convention on Monday night, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani made a number of specific attacks based on statements made by Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry. But Giuliani's description of those comments often lacked context." (Washington Post, 9/1/04)

Bush Doesn't Even Know If He Can Win the War on Terror

According to President Bush, The War on Terror Cannot Be Won. Asked 'Can we win (the war on terror)?' Bush said, 'I don't think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that the - those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world.' ('The Today Show,' 8/30/04)

Bush's Words "Sent Aides Scrambling to Clarify." According to the AP, "Bush's words sent aides scrambling to clarify, taking attention away from the carefully crafted convention and the president's appearances in one battleground state after another...The campaign professed not to be worried that the president had gone off-message." (AP, 8/31/04)

Bush Lives in Fantasyland

"Freedom is On the March." "The terrorists are fighting freedom with all their cunning and cruelty because freedom is their greatest fear. And they should be afraid, because freedom is on the march." (Bush Remarks, Republican National Convention, 9/2/04)

"Our Strategy is Succeeding." "Our strategy is succeeding... Despite ongoing violence in Iraq, that country now has a strong Prime Minister, a national council, and national elections are scheduled in January." (Bush Remarks, 9/14/04)

"Making Progress." "America -- America and the world are safer with Saddam in a prison cell. We're making progress there. I'm impressed -- I'm impressed by Prime Minister Allawi. He's a strong guy who believes that democracy is the future of Iraq, and he's got hard work to do. It wasn't all that long ago that people were brutalized by Saddam Hussein. But we're making progress." (Bush Remarks, 9/9/04)

Everyone Else Live in the Real World

Recently-Revealed Intelligence Document Contrasts With Bush Statements. "The National Intelligence Council looked at the political, economic and security situation and determined that, at best, stability (in Iraq) would be tenuous, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said late Wednesday. At worst, the official said, were 'trend lines that would point to a civil war.' The official said it 'would be fair' to call the (National Intelligence Estimate) 'pessimistic.' The estimate, prepared for President Bush, contrasts with public comments in which Bush and his senior aides have spoken optimistically about the prospects for a peaceful and free Iraq." (AP, 9/16/04)

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi: "Terrorists are Still Pouring In." GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: "But more than 300 Iraqis died this week. There are 50 attacks every single day on US forces." IYAD ALLAWI: "No, this is an international war that being fought on Iraqi territory. Terrorists, foreign terrorists are still pouring in, and they're trying to inflict damage on Iraq to undermine Iraq and to undermine the process, democratic process in Iraq, and, indeed, this is their last stand. So they are putting a very severe fight on Iraq." (ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, 9/19/04)

At Least 1,034 U.S. Casualties in Iraq Since the Beginning of the War. There have been at least 1,034 American casualties in Iraq since the beginning of the war. American troops have borne 90 percent of the total number of casualties. (Brookings Institution, "Iraq Index," Updated 9/22/04)

Washington Post: "U.S. Troops' Death Rate Rising in Iraq." "With the latest spike in violence in Baghdad, more U.S. troops have died since the turnover of power to an interim Iraqi government at the end of June than were killed during the U.S.- led invasion of the country in the spring of 2003." (Washington Post, 9/9/04)

Attacks On U.S. Forces Have Been Increasing Since The Transfer Of Sovereignty. On average, U.S. forces are now being attacked 60 times per day. This is a 20 percent increase from the three months before the transfer of sovereignty. (Los Angeles Times, 8/31/04)

Number Of Soldiers Wounded Has Doubled Since April. The total number of American soldiers wounded since the invasion was launched in March 2003 is 7,245. There were more wounded over the past five months - about 4,000 - than in the first 13 months of the war, when there were about 3,300. "The wounded total has approximately doubled since mid-April, when casualties and deaths mounted rapidly as the insurgency intensified." (Associated Press, 9/1/04, 9/15/04; Time, 9/20/04 issue)

More Troops Died In August Than In July; More In July Than June. In August, 66 U.S. service personnel were killed in Iraq, according to the Defense Department. The toll was the highest since May, when 80 fatalities were recorded. According to Pentagon statistics, American forces suffered 54 casualties in July as compared to 42 in the month of June. (Washington Post, 9/5/04)

"Senators on Both Sides Call for Iraq Policy Shift." "Senators from both parties urged the Bush administration yesterday to face the reality of the situation in Iraq and change its occupation policies." (Associated Press, 9/17/04, www.philly.com)

Republican Senator Hagel: "We're In Deep Trouble in Iraq". Hagel: "The fact is we're in trouble. We're in deep trouble in Iraq. We need more regionalization. We need more help from our allies. We need the Iraqi people to come around us in a more supportive way. That means more jobs, more development... I think we're going to have to look at some recalibration of policy." (CBS, "Face The Nation," 9/18/04)

Gen. Zinni Says Bush Course Is the Wrong Course For Iraq. Zinni: "There has been poor strategic thinking in this. There has been poor operational planning and execution on the ground. And to think that we are going to 'stay the course.' This course is headed over Niagara Falls. I think it's time to change course a little bit. Or at least holding somebody responsible for putting you on this course, because it's been a failure." (CBS, "60 Minutes," 5/23/04)

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