Wednesday, March 31, 2004
White House U-turn on 9/11 inquiry
"The White House has bowed to pressure to allow National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify in public and under oath to the 9/11 commission.
President George W Bush said it would help give Americans 'a complete picture' of events leading to the attacks on 11 September 2001. "
BBC NEWS | Americas | White House U-turn on 9/11 inquiry
News on 2004 elections, John Kerry and George Bush.
washingtonpost.com - News on 2004 elections, John Kerry and George Bush.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Poll: Clarke Doubted; Bush Support Ebbs
"Two-thirds of Americans say the testimony of Richard Clarke, the former terrorism adviser who has been critical of the Bush administration, hasn't affected their view of the president, says a poll released Saturday.
However, public views supporting President Bush (news - web sites)'s handling of terrorism have dipped from 65 percent to 57 percent in the last month, according to the Newsweek poll. That drop comes at a time the commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks has been publicly questioning officials in the Bush and Clinton administrations about their handling of the terror threat."
Yahoo! News - Poll: Clarke Doubted; Bush Support Ebbs:
Monday, March 29, 2004
The New York Times: Times on the Trail
A continually updated report from the campaign trail reported and edited by the Washington bureau of The Times and produced by NYTimes.com
The New York Times: Times on the Trail
Friday, March 26, 2004
White House Fights Clarke Fire With Fire (washingtonpost.com)
"As his advisers tell it, President Bush had tired of the White House playing defense on issue after issue. So this week, his aides turned the full power of the executive branch on Richard A. Clarke, formerly the administration's top counterterrorism official, who charges in his new book that Bush responded lackadaisically in 2001 to repeated warnings of an impending terrorist attack.
Bush's aides unleashed a two-pronged strategy that called for preemptive strikes on Clarke before most people could have seen his book, coupled with saturation media appearances by administration aides. They questioned the truthfulness of Clarke's claims, his competence as an employee, the motives behind the book's timing, and even the sincerity of the pleasantries in his resignation letter and farewell photo session with Bush.
The barrage was unusual for a White House that typically tries to ignore its critics, and it was driven by White House calculations that Clarke would appear credible to average viewers. Bush's advisers are concerned that Clarke's assertions are capable of inflicting political damage on a president who is staking his claim for reelection in large measure on his fight against terrorism."
White House Fights Clarke Fire With Fire (washingtonpost.com)
Kerry Is Sticking With Plan to Raise Auto Fuel Efficiency
"In the face of rising gasoline prices and stagnating fuel efficiency, Senator John Kerry is sticking with a plan he backed in the Senate to increase the nation's fuel economy standards 50 percent by 2015. That would be the largest increase, by far, since automotive fuel economy standards were first imposed after the oil shocks of the 1970's.
Few think even Mr. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, could actually make good on such a plan if he were elected president, because there is too much opposition from Congressional Republicans and Midwestern Democrats. When Senator Kerry and Senator John McCain pushed such a proposal two years ago, it failed in the Senate on a 62-to-38 vote.
But Mr. Kerry's emergence as the likely Democratic nominee has reinvigorated debate in Detroit and Washington about the nation's plummeting fuel economy.
Environmental groups say they believe that bolstering fuel regulations would be Topic A, or close to it, in a Kerry presidency. The Bush campaign says the Kerry plan would have a devastating effect on a region already hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs. Automakers say they do not have the technology to meet his numbers."
Kerry Is Sticking With Plan to Raise Auto Fuel Efficiency
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Former US terror chief slams Bush
"A former White House security expert has said the Bush government did not consider terrorism to be an urgent threat before 11 September 2001.
Richard Clarke told a commission that before the attacks the government considered terrorism 'an important issue, but not an urgent issue'.
He apologised to the families of the 3,000 victims for the 'failures' that allowed the attacks to take place.
Earlier, CIA director George Tenet said a specific warning had been impossible.
Iraq 'distraction'
Mr Clarke began his attack on Monday when he accused President George W Bush's administration of ignoring the threat from terror attacks because of a fixation on Iraq.
In a book published this week, Mr Clarke accused Mr Bush of ignoring warnings before the attacks."
BBC NEWS | Americas | Former US terror chief slams Bush:
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
US 9/11 hearings political dynamite
The heavy hitters have been testifying in Washington, justifying the decisions they made while they were in office, explaining how it was that al-Qaeda's plotters slipped beneath America's security screen to launch the 9/11 attacks.
The commission investigating the 11 September attacks heard from Madeleine Albright and William Cohen who defended the Clinton administration's record on terrorism.
And it took testimony from Colin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld, who insisted that President George W Bush decided as soon as he entered the White House to order up plans to counter al-Qaeda.
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US 9/11 hearings political dynamite
Friday, March 19, 2004
Cash and Kerry
"The Dem challenger needs money fast to counter Bush's overflowing coffers -- and he doesn't much care where it comes from
Democratic Presidential candidate-in-waiting John F. Kerry likes to style himself as a foe of 'powerful special interests in Washington.' But with his campaign fighting off an intense media barrage from President Bush's megabuck reelection effort, Kerry has apparently decided that populism stops at the river's edge -- in this case, the Potomac."
BW Online | March 18, 2004 | Cash and Kerry:
Monday, March 15, 2004
News Analysis: Blow to Bush: Ally Rejected
"The ouster of the center-right party in Spain, only days after a terrorist bombing that may be linked to Al Qaeda, is the first electoral rebuke of one of President Bush's most steadfast allies in the Iraq war.
When France and Germany balked at supporting the war on Iraq, the Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar, stood publicly by Mr. Bush at a summit meeting in the Azores a year ago this week, and just days before the war began. Now voters have elected the opposition Socialists, although the center right was leading in the polls until the terrorist attack.
The Bush administration must now fight the perception, accurate or not, that acts of terror against America's allies can sway nations into rethinking the wisdom of standing too closely with Mr. Bush."
NYT -News Analysis: Blow to Bush: Ally Rejected
Saturday, March 13, 2004
"Analyzating" Bush's Grey Matter
"The President's tendency to mangle words and syntax may be due to an undiagnosed language and hearing disability, say some experts
Ever wonder why President Bush says "nuculer" when he means "nuclear" or "subliminate" when he means "subliminal?" Or why he mixes up perseverance and preservation? Why does he mangle the English language often enough for Slate Editor Jacob Weisberg to produce three books of Bushisms such as "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.""
BW Online | March 12, 2004 | "Analyzating" Bush's Grey Matter
Friday, March 12, 2004
New Bush Ad Assails Kerry on Taxes, War
"Just one week after launching a wave of positive commercials, President Bush went on the attack with a new ad yesterday, charging that Democratic challenger John F. Kerry would "raise taxes by at least $900 billion" and weaken the country's response to terrorism and ability to go to war.
"John Kerry -- wrong on taxes, wrong on defense," says the ad, which begins airing today in 18 battleground states.
Kerry campaign officials, vowing to let no attack go unanswered, immediately began cutting a response ad for airing today. The commercial will deny any such proposed tax plan and remind viewers that Kerry wants to cut taxes for the middle class, the aides said.
"Once again George Bush is misleading America," the tentative script says, adding: "Doesn't America deserve more from its president than misleading negative ads?" "
New Bush Ad Assails Kerry on Taxes, War (washingtonpost.com)
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Bush Blasts Kerry on U.S. Intelligence
"President Bush, in painting his Democratic presidential rival as someone who waffles on national security issues, says John Kerry 'is trying to have it both ways' on matters of intelligence.
At a re-election fund-raiser Monday, Bush contrasted the Massachusetts senator's oft-stated support for intelligence gathering as a crucial component of the war on terror with his support — two years after a deadly 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center — for cutting intelligence funding by $1.5 billion.
"Once again, Senator Kerry is trying to have it both ways. He's for good intelligence, yet he was willing to gut the intelligence services," Bush told 1,100 donors at a Houston event that raised $1.5 million for his campaign. "And that is no way to lead our nation in a time of war."
The salvo was the result of a methodical mining by the Bush campaign of the long trail of votes and speeches from Kerry's 19 years in the Senate. Bush didn't limit himself to national security issues, and also criticized Kerry's shifts in position on the Patriot Act, trade legislation and an education reform bill.
"My opponent clearly has strong beliefs, they just don't last very long," Bush said.
Kerry's campaign said Bush's accusations have no merit and are misleading.
Advisers to Bush are focusing on national security and terrorism in hopes of bolstering their claims that Kerry would be a weak wartime leader who can't stick to one position. The president's team also aims to capitalize on poll results showing those are Bush's strongest areas with voters. "
Yahoo! News - Bush Blasts Kerry on U.S. Intelligence
Support for Bush Falls On Economy and Iraq
"President Bush, the target of months of criticism during the Democratic primary season, has seen public support fall to the lowest level of his presidency for his performance on the economy and the situation in Iraq, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll has found.
A majority of Americans -- 57 percent -- say they want their next president to steer the country away from the course set by Bush, according to the survey. Bush's standing hit new lows in crucial areas such as the economy (39 percent support him), Iraq (46 percent) and the budget deficit (30 percent).
Bush's overall support, 50 percent, was unchanged from February and equal to the lowest of his presidency; only the war on terrorism continues to garner him the support of more than six in 10 Americans.
As a result of these doubts, Bush narrowly trails likely Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry by 4 percentage points, 48 to 44 percent, among registered voters in a hypothetical presidential matchup. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, an independent, claims 3 percent. Of a dozen policy areas, Kerry leads Bush in eight, including the economy, education and health care, while Bush leads only in the war on terrorism. The two candidates are virtually tied in the other three: Iraq, same-sex marriage and civil liberties.
In a bit of good news for Bush, Nader is drawing essentially all of his support from Kerry, who leads Bush by 9 percentage points in a two-way matchup with the president -- an indication Nader could play the spoiler for Democrats in 2004 as he did four years ago. Underscoring that potential, nearly two-thirds of Democrats opposed Nader's decision to run, while nearly half of all Republicans supported his move. "
Support for Bush Falls On Economy and Iraq (washingtonpost.com):
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
President Urges Renewal of the Antiterrorism Law
President Bush called Tuesday for Congress to renew major parts of the antiterrorism law, setting up an election year fight over national security and civil liberties.
In a speech for the first anniversary of the Homeland Security Department, Mr. Bush cast the renewal of the law, the USA Patriot Act, as essential to protecting the United States from terrorist attacks.
"Key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year," Mr. Bush warned in his remarks to 200 employees of the security department at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on Pennsylvania Avenue. "The terrorist threat will not expire on that schedule."
The law has met growing opposition from many Democrats and some Republicans, who say it robs Americans of civil liberties. The law, passed by Congress in 2001 weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, broadens federal powers to conduct wiretaps, demand financial records and use other investigative tools against people suspected of terrorism.
Mr. Bush has sought to use the renewal of the law to further the perception that he will be far tougher on terrorism than the Democrats, an idea that aides see as his greatest strength going into the November election. Crucial provisions of the law are not set to expire until Dec. 31, 2005, more than a year after the election, but Mr. Bush called for the renewal in his State of the Union address in January.
President Urges Renewal of the Antiterrorism Law
Kerry wraps up Democrats contest
John Kerry is to become the Democratic challenger in the US presidential election this November after winning nine out of 10 "Super Tuesday" states.
Exit polls and first results showed him eclipsing his main rival, John Edwards, from California on the west coast to New York in the east.
Mr Edwards is expected to announce on Wednesday that he is quitting the race.
President George W Bush phoned to tell Mr Kerry he anticipated a "spirited race" with him.
BBC NEWS | Americas | Kerry wraps up Democrats contest
