Thursday, September 30, 2004
Questions That Won't Be Asked This Evening
Mr. President:
Several news organizations and watch dog groups, like FactCheck and the Washington Post, have analyzed those of your campaign's TV ads that claim to inform the viewer about Senator Kerry's positions on various subjects, Iraq, defense policy, healthcare, and found those ads to be inaccurate, in their use of partial quotations of his words, often taken out of their context, and their distorting use of the Senator's long history of casting votes in the Senate to suggest, for instance, that he didn't support certain weapons system, when in fact, he did. Are you aware that your ads do this? If not, what are we to think about the voiceover in which you say you are aware of the content of a particular ad and have authorized its use? If so, how do you justify the use of these techniques, and are they fair to the American electorate?
Mr. President:
Since the entire point of turning over soverignty to the government of Mr. Alawi was to put an Iraqi face on the occupation until an election could be conducted next January, what was so important about having Mr. Alawi come here, not only to address the UN, but also a joint session of Congress, and to have him at your side for a press conference, expressing ideas that sounded very much like many of your own speeches, when such an extended visit filled with just such activities was bound to make him look less independent of American power and influence than he might otherwise appear to the average Iraqi?
Mr. President:
Why did you wait from January of 2002, when you first articulated the Axis of Evil and began to talk about calling Saddam Hussein to account until September 2002 to do anything concrete, other than to make speeches to articulate the Bush doctrine of preemptive war, if it was true that in dealing with Saddam, "time," as you and the Vice-President both remarked on more than one occasion, was not on our side, but on Saddam's side? Why, in particular, if you truly hoped that inspections could avoid war, did you wait until September to take your case to the UN, and considering the lack of WMD and ties to Al Queada we have since found in Iraq, do you still think that time was on Saddam's side and not on our's?
Mr. President:
On the stump, you often make personally disparaging remarks about Senator Kerry, deliberately seeming to want to hold him up to contempt and derision of a very personal nature? You and the Vice-President have both called him "unfit" to be Commander In Chief, echoing the ads of the Swiftboat Vets For Truth, even though you claim not to believe what they have to say about Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam. Do you consider it Presidential to conduct a campaign using personal derision in this manner, and isn't it a distraction from what the voters say they want, a substantive discussion of the serious issues facing this country?
Mr. President:
Why has your administration not been able as yet, to get the 18 million earmarked for Iraqi construction by the congress into into the hands of Iraqi's themselves on the local level to do the work of repairing infrastructure, and why do you have no such specific plans reading to implement, when it is generally conceded by many with expertise in this area that the dire unemployment through-out Iraq is contributing warm bodies to the insurgency, and souring all Iraqis on the US presence there. Isn't what Iraq needs most a massive public works project, disbersed as widely as possible to smaller, local Iraqi entrepreneurs?
Mr. President:
You have said that Senator Kerry's plan for making affordable health coverage available to more Americans will result in a government takeover in which ordinary Americans will no longer be able to pick their own doctors, and will find their medical treatment under the supervision of bureaucrats. These were the same arguments used against Hillary Clinton's attempt to extend healthcare to all Americans. But what the nineties taught most Amerians was that it was the HMO's who kept people from choosing their own doctors, and the HMO's who relied on bureaucrats to over doctors to control medical costs. Yet, premiums have kept on being more and more expensive. Can you please explain how medical savings accounts will make health insurance more affordable for the great majority of Americans?
Several news organizations and watch dog groups, like FactCheck and the Washington Post, have analyzed those of your campaign's TV ads that claim to inform the viewer about Senator Kerry's positions on various subjects, Iraq, defense policy, healthcare, and found those ads to be inaccurate, in their use of partial quotations of his words, often taken out of their context, and their distorting use of the Senator's long history of casting votes in the Senate to suggest, for instance, that he didn't support certain weapons system, when in fact, he did. Are you aware that your ads do this? If not, what are we to think about the voiceover in which you say you are aware of the content of a particular ad and have authorized its use? If so, how do you justify the use of these techniques, and are they fair to the American electorate?
Mr. President:
Since the entire point of turning over soverignty to the government of Mr. Alawi was to put an Iraqi face on the occupation until an election could be conducted next January, what was so important about having Mr. Alawi come here, not only to address the UN, but also a joint session of Congress, and to have him at your side for a press conference, expressing ideas that sounded very much like many of your own speeches, when such an extended visit filled with just such activities was bound to make him look less independent of American power and influence than he might otherwise appear to the average Iraqi?
Mr. President:
Why did you wait from January of 2002, when you first articulated the Axis of Evil and began to talk about calling Saddam Hussein to account until September 2002 to do anything concrete, other than to make speeches to articulate the Bush doctrine of preemptive war, if it was true that in dealing with Saddam, "time," as you and the Vice-President both remarked on more than one occasion, was not on our side, but on Saddam's side? Why, in particular, if you truly hoped that inspections could avoid war, did you wait until September to take your case to the UN, and considering the lack of WMD and ties to Al Queada we have since found in Iraq, do you still think that time was on Saddam's side and not on our's?
Mr. President:
On the stump, you often make personally disparaging remarks about Senator Kerry, deliberately seeming to want to hold him up to contempt and derision of a very personal nature? You and the Vice-President have both called him "unfit" to be Commander In Chief, echoing the ads of the Swiftboat Vets For Truth, even though you claim not to believe what they have to say about Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam. Do you consider it Presidential to conduct a campaign using personal derision in this manner, and isn't it a distraction from what the voters say they want, a substantive discussion of the serious issues facing this country?
Mr. President:
Why has your administration not been able as yet, to get the 18 million earmarked for Iraqi construction by the congress into into the hands of Iraqi's themselves on the local level to do the work of repairing infrastructure, and why do you have no such specific plans reading to implement, when it is generally conceded by many with expertise in this area that the dire unemployment through-out Iraq is contributing warm bodies to the insurgency, and souring all Iraqis on the US presence there. Isn't what Iraq needs most a massive public works project, disbersed as widely as possible to smaller, local Iraqi entrepreneurs?
Mr. President:
You have said that Senator Kerry's plan for making affordable health coverage available to more Americans will result in a government takeover in which ordinary Americans will no longer be able to pick their own doctors, and will find their medical treatment under the supervision of bureaucrats. These were the same arguments used against Hillary Clinton's attempt to extend healthcare to all Americans. But what the nineties taught most Amerians was that it was the HMO's who kept people from choosing their own doctors, and the HMO's who relied on bureaucrats to over doctors to control medical costs. Yet, premiums have kept on being more and more expensive. Can you please explain how medical savings accounts will make health insurance more affordable for the great majority of Americans?
