Stumping Bush Calls Kerry a Reluctant Ally on Iraq

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/11/politics/campaign/11bush.html?hp

Stumping Bush Calls Kerry a Reluctant Ally on Iraq
By CARL HULSE

ICEVILLE, Fla., Aug. 10 - Traveling here through Florida's conservative Panhandle, President Bush told supporters Tuesday that he had a new backer for his decision to invade Iraq: Senator John Kerry.

Mr. Bush and allies seized on Mr. Kerry's remark of Monday that he would have voted to grant authority for the war even if he had known no weapons of mass destruction would be found. The Republicans said the comment amounted to what they described as another shift in position by the Democratic presidential nominee and an acknowledgement that administration policy on a crucial national security matter was correct after all.

"After months of questioning my motives and even my credibility, Senator Kerry now agrees with me that even though we have not found the stockpile of weapons we all believe were there, knowing everything we know today, he would have voted to go into Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power," Mr. Bush told a cheering crowd in Pensacola as he began a five-day cross-country campaign swing. "I want to thank Senator Kerry for clearing that up."

Mr. Kerry has long maintained that his vote in favor of authorizing force in Iraq, a vote cast five months before the war began, in no way signaled his favoring the way the president ultimately acted: without reaching out, in the senator's view, to sufficient numbers of American partners and failing to exhaust all alternatives. He has also argued that the Senate vote was necessary if the president was to be armed with enough credibility to deal with Saddam Hussein.

At a rally Tuesday night in Las Vegas, Mr. Kerry said he had been "consistent all along,'' and added: "I thought the United States needed to stand up to Saddam Hussein, and I voted to stand up to Saddam Hussein. But I thought we ought to do it right.''<snip>

[soupkitchen]

1. Kerry best response, "Well, he didn't understand what I said. He seems

not to understand a lot of things. And maybe what we need in America is as simple as that, a President capable of understanding things."

[Parche]

2. GW Bush

I like the way Bush twists the wording around and twists
the way Kerry feels about this.
He voted for the authority to use force, if necessary, NOT WAR
He has explained that for almost 2years now,
And it was not necessary to go to war, and he wanted a strong
coalition, unlike what we have now, and also the UN