Talking Points Day One -- Bush is a great war president and leader, Kerry is always changing his mind and, uh, changes his mind a lot.
In a surprising turn of events, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said, "My friends, this is no time to pick a leader who is weak on the war and wrong on taxes." Wow. How embarrassing for Bush that Hastert appears to be endorsing Kerry here.
After all, Kerry has never said he was against the war on terror. In fact, he has criticized Bush on not doing enough, and on abusing the trust handed to him by us and by Congress. Kerry disagreed with the way Bush rushed into the Iraq war and alienated our allies in the process, but not on the war itself.
And as for being wrong on taxes, I'd say record deficits, a shifting of the tax burden from the wealthy onto working families, and passing on the burden to the states and to future generations who will almost certainly have to pay higher taxes because of this administration's economic policies wrong on taxes. Right on, Hastert. This is no time for Bush.
Then there was Giuliani, who called President Bush "a leader who is willing to stick with difficult decisions even as public opinion shifts..." Yeah. It's called believing what he believes facts be darned and sticking with the wrong decisions and refusing to admit error even when "public opinion" shifts because of little things like, well, the fact that Bush was wrong.
It's nice that Bush has recently admitted that maybe he miscalculated on the aftermath of the war, and even that the war on terror probably cannot be won. All part of his makeover. Oh, wait, that's right, Kerry was the one getting the makeover, when all the speakers at the DNC were encouraged to follow certain themes...
I actually did like Heather Wilson's clever phrase, "In this great struggle, we need a commander in chief who is a beacon, not a weather vane." Even if the message was unoriginal, it was at least a clever turn of phrase.
Giuliani also said, "President Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is. John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent vision." Uh, sure. I remember that time Kerry said world terrorism was pretty neato. Not.
Yes, it is true that Bush tends to see things in terms of black and white, good and evil, but that is not always good. Or evil. Or perhaps Giuliani is referring to the many times we have supported men or regimes that we later labeled terrorists, like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, or sold arms to countries like Iran. Oh, wait, that's right, Republican presidents like Bush Sr. did that.
Or perhaps he's referring to Kerry's Senate record, which I addressed in this blog.
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