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Archive for March, 2004
March 2, 2004
- “When he ran for president in 2000, President Bush promisedthe American people that he would work to renew the assaultweapons ban. But now, under pressure, he is walking away fromthat commitment,” the Massachusetts senator said in his firstSenate speech this year.
- “The president’s record tells it all,” said spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. “Just as Republicans want to run on Bush’s record, so do we. Three million jobs lost, 40 million lost health care, and the nation is less secure. The American people are ready for change.”
March 3, 2004
- “I think we can run a far more effective war on terror,” he said Tuesday. “I think Iraq has been managed disastrously. We have cost the American people untold billions of dollars, and we have put our troops at much greater risk than they had to be.”
- “The American people will decide between two visions of government: a government that encourages ownership and opportunity and responsibility, or a government that takes your money and makes your choices,” he said last month.
- “President Bush has provided the kind of steady leadership that the American people are looking for,” Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlan told a press conference.
- “All these issues that the American people care deeply about. We have touched their souls again. They feel these issues.”
March 4, 2004
- “We cannot allow a singular quest for electoral victory to impede the more universal and important quest for victory over terrorism, a victory that will enable the American people to feel fully secure again here at home,” Lieberman said in his first major speech to the Senate since he dropped out of the presidential race Feb. 3.
- “Unfortunately, you can’t provide ‘steady leadership’ without credibility,” said the statement issued by Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. “And George Bush has lost credibility with the American people.”
- “They (the Bush administration) obviously misused information and misled the American people,” Kerry said last month.
March 6, 2004
- Here is what Wesley Clark had to say about Kerry (and fellow rival John Edwards ) on Feb. 5: “The American people don’t want another Washington insider who never plays it straight. They don’t want a follower who makes decisions by licking his finger and sticking it up in the wind.”
- “In the November election we will have a clear choice laid before the American people,” the letter reads. “President Bush is rightly offering us that choice and the images of Sept. 11, although painful, are fundamental to that choice. The images in President Bush’s campaign television ads are respectful of the memories of Sept. 11.”
- “How this administration handled that day, as well as the war on terror, is worthy of discussion. And I look forward to discussing that with the American people,” he said.
March 7, 2004
- Kerry would also likely ask the American people to put aside their “misgivings” on Iraq because there is no option for failure, indicated Sandy Berger, a former advisor to President Bill Clinton , whom Kerry has consulted.
March 8, 2004
- As for this campaign, she says, “the most gratifying and the greatest lesson is that in the hearts and minds of the American people there is still a kernel of can-do, there is still wanting to hope,” admitting she had feared those emotions would have been dulled by terrorism, job losses and health concerns. “People still want to be Americans, in the best sense.”
March 9, 2004
- Bush spokesman Terry Holt noted that foreign leaders will not vote this fall. “Whatever Kerry’s foreign friends think of this election, it’s in the hands of the American people,” he said. “Endorsements from the French and the Germans aren’t going to matter that much.”
- “Vietnam was a painful period in our national life, and both of these men, President Bush and Senator Kerry, served,” he pointed out. “They served their nation; they served their nation honorably. And let’s talk about the issues of today and not go back and drag up old stories for the purpose of diverting us from what we ought to be doing right now, and that is: Who has the better vision of a brighter future for the American people and the world?”
March 11, 2004
- He added: “We call on Senator Kerry to apologise to the American people for this negative attack.”
- “The American people are entitled to know before the election, not after the election, at least the estimated costs … in dollars … lives … length of the occupation,” said Byrd.
- “These ads demonstrate the clear choice the American peopleface in November,” said Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman.
March 12, 2004
- Bush has denied in the past that he has dyslexia. Asked for this column if the President has a language disorder, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan dismissed the idea, without flatly denying it. She told BusinessWeek Online Bush’s medical records have been scrutinized for 15 years. “The American people know more about the President’s health than just about anyone’s,” she added.
- “The killers try to shake our will, try to shake our confidence,” the president said. “The Spanish people stand firm against this type of killing and they’ll have a friend with the American people.”
March 13, 2004
- WASHINGTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said Saturday the Bush administration has a “widening credibility gap” between what it tells the American people and the facts.
March 15, 2004
- “These ads demonstrate the clear choice the American peopleface in November,” said Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman.
- In delivering the Democrats’ weekly radio address, Kennedysaid the Republican president has failed to level with theAmerican people on several fronts — including the economy,health care, taxes, education and Iraq .
- “I think that if Senator Kerry is going to say he has support from foreign leaders then he needs to be straightforward with the American people and say who it is that he has spoken with and who it is that supports him,” McClellan said.
- “If Senator Kerry is going to say he has support fromforeign leaders, then he needs to be straightforward with theAmerican people and say who it is that he has spoken with andwho it is that supports him,” White House spokesman ScottMcClellan told reporters.
March 16, 2004
- “If Senator Kerry is going to say he has support from foreign leaders, then he needs to be straightforward with the American people and say who it is he has spoken with and who it is that supports him,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
- “On each and every one of them, this administration has yetto level with the American people,” Kerry said.
- He added: “But I certainly agree that if that’s the case, it would be interesting for the American people to know who they are, and why they feel that way.”
- “The American people will have a clear choice in theelection of 2004 — at least as clear as any since the electionof 1984,” he will say.
March 17, 2004
- “The American people have not sent us here just to be an amen chorus for this administration. There are serious problems and we should be debating serious solutions,” said Rep. Tom Lantos of California, top Democrat on the House International Relations Committee.
- But Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., countered that U.S. action had “brought freedom for tens of millions, toppled one of the most despicable regimes in the history of the world and strengthened the national security for the American people.” He said Republicans simply wanted to congratulate the troops and “I don’t understand why there is any controversy.”
- The vice president said: “The American people will have a clear choice in the election of 2004.”
- “They can do so by holding accountable those who deceivedand manipulated the American people to justify the invasion andoccupation of Iraq, starting with President Bush,” Niederersaid at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol.
March 18, 2004
- “This kind of rhetoric, I think, is not helpful in educating and helping the American people make a choice,” McCain said on “The Early Show” on CBS. “You know, it’s the most bitter and partisan campaign that I’ve ever observed. I think it’s because both parties are going to their bases rather than going to the middle. I regret it.”
- Asked on NBC’s “Today” if he thought Kerry was weak on defense, McCain said: “No, I do not believe that he is, quote, weak on defense. He’s responsible for his voting record, as we are all responsible for our records, and he’ll have to explain it. But, no, I do not believe that he is necessarily weak on defense. I don’t agree with him on some issues, clearly. But I decry this negativism that’s going on on both sides. The American people don’t need it.”
- “This kind of rhetoric, I think, is not helpful in educating and helping the American people make a choice,” he said on “The Early Show” on CBS.
March 19, 2004
- “This election will be decided by the American people, and the American people alone,” Kerry adviser Rand Beers said in a statement Thursday. “It is simply not appropriate for any foreign leader to endorse a candidate in America’s presidential election. John Kerry does not seek, and will not accept, any such endorsements.”
- Bush-Cheney spokesman Terry Holt, citing a campaign policy of not discussing its strategy, would not comment Thursday on whether it has tested any words or phrases. But he says the word “steady” conveys just the right message about Bush. “The president is a determined and steady person,” Holt says. Especially since 9/11, he says, “we think that is what the American people expect of a president.”
- “What we have offered to the Senate is an opportunity to register our votes for real choices, for a set of choices that reflect what the American people would really like to be spending their money on as opposed to being forced to spend it by the continuation of programs that the president has asked to have cut; that the National Academy of Sciences boards have said are worthless; that most of the evaluations say are wasteful,” Kerry argued.
- “He misled the American people in his own State of the Union Address about Saddams nuclear program and WMDs, and refused and continues to refuse to level with the American people about the cost of the war,” Kerry said in a statement.
March 20, 2004
- “It is the choice between keeping the tax relief that is moving this economy forward, or putting the burden of higher taxes back on the American people,” Bush said.
March 22, 2004
- “This election will be decided by the American people, and the American people alone,” Kerry adviser Rand Beers said. “It is simply not appropriate for any foreign leader to endorse a candidate in America’s presidential election. John Kerry does not seek, and will not accept, any such endorsements.”
- Countering him in that TV interview, Richard Perle, assistant defense secretary in the Reagan administration, said foreign interests “are not the same as the interests of the American people, which the president is committed to protecting and defending.”
- “This is a staggering amount of spending,” Republican chairman Ed Gillespie said Monday in a conference call with reporters, “and I do think it’s important to put it all in context and let the American people understand just how much spending Kerry proposes and how big a government Kerry would create.”
- Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for Kerry, said the Massachusetts senator is opposed to a constitutional amendment. “He believes the president is using it as a wedge issue to divide the nation when more important things are facing the American people.”
- Seven Democratic senators, meanwhile, wrote to Bush protesting the decision not to allow her to testify, saying her refusal “can only lead the American people to one conclusion: that she has something to hide and is not fully committed to finding the truth.”
March 23, 2004
- The report, presented at the outset of the commission’shearings, was likely to raise more questions about Bush’selection campaign assertion that he has done everything hecould to protect the American people.
March 25, 2004
- “Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people,” Bush said to loud applause from an audience of about 300 people.
- Bush added, to loud applause: “Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people.”
March 26, 2004
- “Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people,” the president said.
- “Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes tostrike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource,every asset, every power of the government, to protect theAmerican people,” Bush said, appearing with Cheryl McGinnis,the wife of a pilot killed in the attacks.
- “Over the years, he’s voted over 350 times for higher taxes on the American people, including the biggest tax increase in American history. He supported a fifty cent a gallon tax increase on gasoline. He wanted you to pay the extra money at the pump and he wouldn’t even throw in a free car wash.”
March 27, 2004
- “If Condoleezza Rice can find time to do ‘60 Minutes’ ontelevision before the American people, she ought to find 60minutes to speak to the commission under oath,” Kerry said.
- “It’s unfortunate the lengths that Sen. Daschle and a minority of Senate Democrats will go to obstruct the normal judicial confirmation process,” White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said. “At a time when we need our government to be at full strength, he is suggesting that we leave these seats open, and the American people deserve better.”
- “A divisive form of political gamesmanship has been allowed to extend to the nomination process itself,” Daschle said. “Talented candidates are being prevented from serving their nation. And the views and communities they represent are not being heard. And the American people are losing out as a result.”
March 29, 2004
- “There’s going to be a clear choice come November between the president’s positive agenda of removing the barriers to growth in order to move the economy forward or raising taxes on the American people, a choice between being strong in the face of terror or backward-looking policies that view the war on terrorism as a law enforcement effort,” Dickens said.
March 30, 2004
- “We deserve an administration that doesn’t fake it to the American people and pretend that somehow by drilling in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge we can deal with the problems of America,” he said. “We can’t provide the supply of oil America needs from the Alaska Wildlife Refuge or from any other source in the United States because we only have 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves.”
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