GOP Assails Kerry As Convention Begins

[RedEarth]

NEW YORK - Republicans belittled Democratic Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) as a shift-in-the-wind campaigner unworthy of the White House on Monday at the opening of their national convention, lavishing praise on President Bush (news - web sites) as a steady, decisive leader in an age of terrorism.



"In this great struggle, we need a commander in chief who is a beacon, not a weather vane," said Rep. Heather Wilson (news, bio, voting record) of New Mexico in remarks prepared for delivery to delegates gathered four miles from the site where terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001. "We have one in George W. Bush."


"Kerry is weak on war and wrong on taxes," added House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois.


Bush campaigned in New Hampshire as the GOP opened its four-day gathering, and triggered an instant campaign stir when he told an interviewer he doubted victory is possible in the war on terror.


"I don't think you can win it. But I think you can create the conditions that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world," he told NBC. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (news - web sites) quickly labeled that a concession of defeat in the war that terrorists launched in 2001, and White House spokesman Scott McClellan hastened to clarify the president's remarks.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20040830/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_convention_rdp

[Cocoa]

1. here's McClellan's "clarification"

But McClellan saw it differently. "He was talking about winning it in the conventional sense ... about how this is a different kind of war and we face an unconventional enemy," said the president's spokesman. "I don't think you can expect that there will ever be a formal surrender or a treaty signed like we have in wars past."


Sounds a little too nuanced for me. :-)

[kwolf68]

3. Sounds like

it depends on what the definition of "is" is.

[Nordic]

2. they can't run on Bush's record, smearing Kerry is their only option

[Octafish]

4. You got it, Nordic. In their guts, they know he's nuts.

The 'pukes are scared. The reason: The Smirk's a clueless coward whose best defense is ignorance. Most likely, the guy's a traitor.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. I guess all the media ghouls turn the other way when the rw

slams Kerry, but the Dem's weren't even allowed to utter the name of his highness.

[cybildisobedience]

6. and the Dems fell for the goading

Why? Why did Kerry lay down his arms?
There were tens of thousands of passionate Kerry/Dem supporters in Boston DYING to hear the designated speakers address our concerns and point out Bush's weaknesses - which are legion.
Instead, we were all instructed to play nice, to be fair, to stress the positive...

and for what?
to run smack down into a vile, vicious and underhanded smear campaign, which impunes Kerry's heroic war record on BEHALF OF A DESERTER!!!!!

[shraby]

7. Poor Bush needs an interpreter to 'splain

what he's saying cause he says what he means (no nuance) and the interpreter has to put the nuance in.

[CBHagman]

8. Judging by their platform and rhetoric, it's a hate fest.

So much for unity and an optimistic message! These guys smear people as naturally and automatically as the rest of us make a morning cup of coffee or tea.

So much for seeking the moderate voter. Negative campaigning might drive more away than it attracts. I think they've already got the SOB vote anyway.