Salon: In Appleton, "Kerry made the point many were waiting to hear"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/30/kerry_bin_laden/index.html

Oct. 30, 2004 | APPLETON, Wis. -- At a rally in Miami Friday night, John Kerry said Bruce Springsteen had provided the theme for his campaign: "No retreat, baby, no surrender." But then Kerry delivered a speech in which he seemed to do a little bit of both. On a day when a new videotape showed pretty conclusively that Osama bin Laden was neither dead nor "on the run," Kerry said nothing at all about the terrorist leader or the Bush administration's failure to capture him.

Saturday morning in Wisconsin, Kerry had his backbone back. At a rally on a muddy football field in Appleton, Kerry made the point that many in his party were waiting to hear from him: If Bush hadn't diverted the military's attention from the war on terrorism to the war in Iraq, bin Laden wouldn't be making any videotapes today.

"As I have said for two years now, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, and it was wrong to outsource the job of capturing them to Afghan warlords who a week earlier were fighting against us," Kerry said. Instead, Bush should have relied on U.S. troops, he said, soldiers "who wanted to avenge America for what happened in New York and Pennsylvania and Washington."

"It was wrong to divert our forces from Afghanistan so we could rush to war in Iraq without a plan to win the peace," Kerry said. "I will lead the world in fighting a smarter, more effective, tougher, more strategic war on terror, and we will make America safer."

[cubsfan forever]

1. John Kerry is THE MAN!

Professor 2

[The Chronicler]

3. Go Cubs!

Beltran 2 Chicago No Doubt.

[Weembo]

7. God I hope not.

Astros in 05

[The Chronicler]

10. Andy needs to stay healthy, and Roger should come back.

Andy might have put you guys over the top THIS year. It's too bad he was out.

[cubsfan forever]

12. I still worry that King George S in NY

will try to outbid the Cubs for his services. I did read that his agent says he wants to play for the Cubs. Once we get Kerry elected, I will be able to worry about this most important issue, and be darned glad that is the biggest issue on the table! I hope you are right!

Professor 2

[The Wielding Truth]

15. Hey I was gonna say that! OK .....yeah........ Kerry Our New Pres!

[aquart]

2. "Had his backbone back"???

What a slimy bit of editorializing.

[sandnsea]

5. And, waiting to hear?

He's been saying this for months now and talking about Tora Bora since 2002. How do they get paid to write this shit?

[gratuitous]

14. No kidding!

Boy, have the media woken up cranky or what? Kerry's been clobbering Bush on this kind of incompetence for MONTHS. It's about time the media deigned to notice. Did it take a bin Laden videotape for them to finally stop asking "Whaaaaa?" whenever Kerry pointed out Stupidhead's bumbling?

Fucking whores.

[glitch]

4. Really not appreciating Tim Grieve - Kerry's been saying all along

that Iraq was a diversion from Afghanistan and catching OBL.
So how is it that "Kerry had his backbone back"?
Not stating the bleeding obvious every time he opens his mouth is not a sign of no backbone.
Salon is better than this level of writing.

[bush equals idiot]

6. Where is this statement that should be

headlining the news stories on the Kerry segments?

"If Bush hadn't diverted the military's attention from the war on terrorism to the war in Iraq, bin Laden wouldn't be making any videotapes today."

That's the one I've been waiting for.

[NAO]

8. If *hadn't diverted ...OBL couldn't make tapes...CNN, MSNBC Headline?

OK, Kerry said it. He didn't mince words. It was likely the most powerful and devastating statement he has made in the entire campaign:

"If Bush hadn't diverted the military attention from the war on terrorism to the war in Iraq, bin Laden wouldn't be making any videotapes today."

So why isn't' this THE headline story on CNN and MSNBC? They report all of Bush's zingers, and some of Kerry's zingers too, why is this uber-zinger not getting front page top billing?

[Evergreen Emerald]

9. Kerry had to wait

He would have been criticized for using the tape politically had he made that statement yesterday. He is saavy.

(my 70th post!)

[Nlighten1]

11. It shows...

that Kerry is very adept at running a campaign.

[Julien Sorel]

13. If you don't have bodily fluids dripping from your fangs,

you lack a "backbone."

Why does the left lose? Because soooo many of them are sooooo stupid.