Battles in Iraq Bring Troubles for Bush and Kerry as Well

[G_j]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/politics/campaign/08POLI.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=

Battles in Iraq Bring Troubles for Bush and Kerry as Well
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and CARL HULSE

ASHINGTON, April 7 — The surge of violence in Iraq has created vast political complications for Democrats and Republicans, as President Bush struggled on Wednesday to address doubts about his foreign policy and Senator John Kerry sought to challenge the conduct of a war he voted for two years ago.

The difficulties facing both men were evident throughout the day. As scenes of violence in Iraq flashed across television screens, Mr. Bush was mostly out of sight, on his ranch in Crawford, Tex., even as some of his conservative supporters began expressing concern that Mr. Bush's Iraq policy could diminish his re-election prospects.

<snip>
In an interview on Wednesday with American Urban Radio Networks, Mr. Kerry described the president's Iraq policy as "one of the greatest failures of diplomacy and failures of judgment that I have seen in all the time that I've been in public life."

Still, even as he attacked Mr. Bush, Mr. Kerry was notably vague in saying how he would handle the matter as president. His advisers said he had no plans to offer a policy speech about a war that aides to Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry alike said they now expected to provide a bloody backdrop for the campaign for months.

..more..

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. I have a solution.

www.bringthemhomenow.com

[rocktivity]

2. Stay the course, Kerry!

Mr. Kerry was notably vague in saying how he would handle the matter as president. His advisers said he had no plans to offer a policy speech about a war that aides to Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry alike said they now expected to provide a bloody backdrop for the campaign for months.

And Mr. Kerry will remain notably vauge if he's smart. It's Bush's bloody backdrop--let it stay draped around him. Nothing would make the Bush media happier than to be able to spend their time bashing Kerry for undermining Bush with commentary about the war. Don't fall for it, Kerry--they're just trying to smoke you out!

:headbang:
rocknation

[MSgt213]

3. Don't forget one of the things Repubs have been good at is taking away

issues from the Democrats when shit really hits the fan for them. If Kerry laid out his plans I don't think Bush would have a problem taking them and using them and having his lie machine say that he plan the same thing along.

[Nimble_Idea]

4. I hope you don't think that Kerry

is not telling people his plan so to keep it all for himself.

That's absurd , no American would keep secret what they thought would help keep troops safe and help America win, any real good American anyways. Kerry has laid out his plans, and he has been talking about the issues, Stoopid people in the Media just don't get it, they Don't hear what kerry is saying, because they DONT WANT to hear what he is saying, they won't give him any coverage except bad coverage.

Shrub knows what the right thing to do is, it's what kerry has been saying all along, it's just that Shrub wont listen to him.

Shrub and his ilk are just recursive failures. Even if Kerry were to send them his plans in a Bound Volume , they would just throw it away and burn it.

Please don't get confused by the Whore media and think that John Kerry is keeping his PLANS SECRET because you haven't heard it from the WHORE MEDIA, Kerry's plans are out there for you to see. Go to JohnKerry.com and pay more attention to Kerry on C-span and other places.

[drfemoe]

5. It's a Scandal

"It's incumbent upon all Americans to rally around the leadership of this country in times of great crisis in the world when we are the leader of the free world and not to incite the other side," said Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, even as he acknowledged that the administration "underestimated just how difficult and complex the job in Iraq would be."

Focus Groups, Mr. President. F-O-C-U-S Groups!! Listen to 'em. NO WAR. I wouldn't begin to disgrace myself by rally'n 'round THEIR efen CRISIS!!

But in an unwelcome development for the White House, even some right-leaning commentators and political leaders appeared uncomfortable with Mr. Bush's Iraq policy. Bill O'Reilly, the Fox News commentator who had been one of the most vocal supporters of the war, warned that the situation in Iraq might cost Mr. Bush re-election if he did not deal with it promptly. Mr. O'Reilly compared the Iraqis to the South Vietnamese in their lack of support for the United States.

By-the-by. NYT gives no credit to John Kerry. YET >>
Mr. Kerry urged Mr. Bush to abandon his vow to transfer power to a provisional government on July 1, charging that Mr. Bush was acting more out of concern with the domestic election calendar than in an orderly transition of power in Iraq.

"I think the June 30 deadline is a fiction and they never should have set an arbitrary deadline, which almost clearly has been affected by the election schedule in the United States of America," he said in a National Public Radio broadcast.

There's part of a plan. The Ira* people want to VOTE. That's one reason they are so p-o'ed. Ira* has been holding 'elections' for decades? Sure, we know who they 'voted' for, but there must be some kind of procedure to conduct an election. The UN is supposedly working on putting together elections. I say let them vote, then get get the hell out. Or the other way around. That's where I'll rally.