How Did Bush's "Winnable War" Flip-Flop Become A "Clarification?"

[DrFunkenstein]

As the pinhead on CNN declared, "Well, that clears that up."

Um, what!?! Bush talks about the nature of terrorism in a real and unscripted way, then gets smacked in the head by Cheney and Rove, and the scripted version is the clarification?

BTW - How come the GOP convention is being described as a "highly-scripted lovefest?"

[swag]

1. Here's a nice transcript from CNN (via Machman of omni-bb)

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0408/30/se.02.html

BLITZER: All right. A lot of confusion today over what the
president meant when he said that the war on terror is not
winnable, you can't exactly win this war. What exactly did he mean
by that?

BARTLETT: Anybody who has heard this president the last three years
has demonstrated that he understands that we can win this war on
terror, that we're going to win it by fighting on offense, that our
strategy is to get them before they get us. But another critical
aspect of this war, the critical aspect is that we need to spread
liberty and democracy. When he said we can't win it, what he is
saying is that this, "it," Al Qaida, is not a conventional enemy,
not one that's going to sign up to a treaty and say we surrender.
What he's talking about is we've got to get to the root causes on
the war on terror. And that's what spreading freedom and hope and
liberty is all about.

WOODRUFF: But when he was asked that almost identical question on
CNN just a few weeks ago, the same question, "can the war on terror
be won," he said absolutely it can be won.

BARTLETT: That's what I'm saying.

WOODRUFF: So which is it?

BARTLETT: Exactly.

_________________________

wha?

[BootinUp]

5. he resorted to playing "who's on first?"

AND THEY LET HIM GET AWAY WITH THAT!??

[lanparty]

9. But it's not the war on "terrorism"

It's the 'War on extremist radicals who hate freedom and would deny freedom to others'

Or whatever he said.

[Scorpious_Maximus]

10. Must be the Xanax . n/t

[derby378]

2. You had it right earlier

It's a flip-flop, pure and simple. Bush got caught with his pants down.

[swag]

3. and

FLIP

"We have a clear vision on how to win the war on terror and bring peace to the world."

2004.07.30
________________________
FLOP

"I don.t think you can win . 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..

2004.08.29
________________________
FLIP


"Make no mistake about it, we are winning and we will win."

2004.08.31

[lanparty]

8. Hmmm ...

... I wonder if he is more willing to "swat at flies" now instead of dropping bug bombs and stirring up the bee hive.

[LuminousX]

4. It's black

let me clarify, when I say black, it is actually white.

[eaprez]

6. The Dems was described the same way.....

speakers were described as staying on script...with the exception of Al Sharpton :)

[lanparty]

7. Bush was honest for one of the first time ...

... and I'm kinda upset that he is being attacked in the way he is for finally making a reasonable observation. Of course, he didn't request contrition. He did not say that his course was wrong.

The fight against terrorism is NOT a war. It is a set of police precautions punctuated by targeted military action when appropriate. It's reading your PDB in the morning and setting security alerts. It's NOT completely de-prioritizing anti-terrorist activities. It's the attorney general beating the bushes at the FBI for terrorist information "What have YOU done to fight terrorism today".

Yes, Bush deserves some criticism for waffling without admitting his error. He must ADMIT that he was wrong. Anything that you CALL a war must be winnable. Colin Powell told him as much, I don't know why they don't believe him.