XPost: ny.politics, nj.politics, ca.politics 
 XPost: alt.politics.democrats 
 From: javozda@N0TSPAM.0RG 
  
 On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 19:22:11 GMT, Obwon  wrote: 
  
 >Posted on Tue, Oct. 26, 2004 
 > 
 >Candidates exchange harsh words on Iraq 
 > 
 >KERRY CALLED CONSISTENTLY, 
 >DANGEROUSLY `WRONG' ON 
 >NATIONAL SECURITY 
 > 
 >By James Kuhnhenn, William Douglas 
 >and Matt Stearns 
 > 
 >Knight Ridder 
 > 
 >PHILADELPHIA - Sen. John Kerry leveled 
 >one of his harshest denunciations of 
 >President Bush's handling of the war in 
 >Iraq on Monday amid reports that 380 
 >tons of powerful explosives had disappeared 
 >from a former Iraqi military installation. 
 > 
 >Campaigning in Colorado and Iowa, Bush 
 >accused Kerry of being ``consistently and 
 >dangerously wrong'' on national security 
 >issues and suggested that Kerry would 
 >employ a ``cut and run'' policy if elected. 
 > 
 >The Democratic candidate's broadside 
 >came shortly before he was joined in 
 >Philadelphia by former President Bill 
 >Clinton in his first campaign appearance 
 >since heart bypass surgery last month. 
 > 
 >``Now we know that our country and our 
 >troops are less safe because this president 
 >failed to do the basics,'' Kerry said at a 
 >morning rally in Dover, N.H. ``This is one 
 >of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the 
 >great blunders of this administration. 
 >The incredible incompetence of this 
 >president and this administration has put 
 >our troops at risk and put this country at 
 >greater risk than we ought to be.'' 
 > 
 >Bush used a morning rally in Greeley, Colo., 
 >and stops in Council Bluffs and Davenport, 
 >Iowa, to sustain his increasingly harsh 
 >attack on Kerry. 
 > 
 >``During the last 20 years, in key moments 
 >of challenge and decisions for America, 
 >Senator Kerry has chosen the positions 
 >of weakness and inaction,'' Bush told a 
 >rally in a heavily Republican district in 
 >northern Colorado. Quoting signature 
 >phrases from President John F. Kennedy's 
 >1961 inaugural address, Bush said, 
 >``Senator Kerry has turned his back on 
 >`pay any price' and `bear any burden,' 
 >and he has replaced those commitments 
 >with `wait and see' and `cut and run.' '' 
 > 
 >Bush didn't address the missing explosives. 
 >Instead, White House press secretary Scott 
 >McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force 
 >One that the interim Iraqi government 
 >informed the International Atomic Energy 
 >Agency about the missing cache on Oct. 
 >10 and that the IAEA passed the information 
 >on to national security adviser Condoleezza 
 >Rice five days later. She informed Bush. 
 > 
 >Monday night, Pentagon spokesman Bryan 
 >Whitman said coalition forces were present 
 >in the vicinity of the site both during and after 
 >major combat operations, which ended May 
 >1, 2003 -- and searched the facility but found 
 >none of the explosives material in question. 
 >That raised the possibility that the 
 >explosives had disappeared before U.S. 
 >soldiers could secure the site in the 
 >immediate invasion aftermath. 
 > 
 >The Pentagon would not say whether it 
 >had informed the nuclear agency at that 
 >point that the conventional explosives 
 >were not where they were supposed to be. 
 > 
 >The New York Times reported Monday that 
 >nearly 380 tons of powerful explosives had 
 >disappeared from a former Iraqi military 
 >installation that's now abandoned and 
 >unsecured, despite warnings from the 
 >International Atomic Energy Agency. 
 > 
 >The missing explosives didn't deter Bush 
 >from giving a positive assessment of events 
 >in Iraq. He said that despite terrorist acts 
 >in Iraq -- including beheadings and the 
 >weekend massacre of Iraqi security 
 >forces -- the U.S.-led coalition forces 
 >are winning the war. 
 > 
 >``The terrorist insurgents hate our progress, 
 >and they fight our progress,'' Bush said. ``But 
 >they will not stop our progress. We will stay 
 >on the offense against these terrorists and 
 >we will prevail.'' 
 > 
 >Campaigning in western Minnesota, a 
 >conservative part of a key swing state, 
 >Vice President Dick Cheney also did 
 >not mention the missing weapons 
 >cache in Iraq. Instead, he questioned 
 >Kerry's truthfulness, citing a report 
 >that cast doubt on Kerry's assertion 
 >that he had met independently with 
 >members of the United Nations 
 >Security Council before the war in Iraq. 
 > 
 >Kerry spokesman Bill Burton accused 
 >Cheney of trying to change the subject 
 >from the missing weapons in Iraq. Burton 
 >said Kerry had a ``closed meeting and 
 >a private discussion'' with ``a group of 
 >representatives of countries sitting on 
 >the Security Council.'' The meeting 
 >occurred on Sept. 30, 2002, Burton 
 >said. In a nod toward local interests, 
 >Cheney said the Bush administration 
 >supported snowmobiling in national 
 >parks and promised to protect the 
 >sugar industry, an important part of 
 >the agricultural sector in this region, 
 >where sugar beets are a big crop. 
 > 
 >Later, at a town hall meeting in Wilmington, 
 >Ohio, Cheney praised the administration's 
 >handling of Iraq. Iraq is ``a remarkable 
 >success story to date when you look at 
 >what's been accomplished overall,'' 
 >Cheney said, ``and I think the president 
 >deserves great credit for it.'' 
 > 
 >In Philadelphia, Clinton made little 
 >reference to Iraq, focusing on the 
 >economic conditions that he said 
 >Kerry would improve. 
 > 
 >``Their plan is more of the same,'' he said. 
 >``They gave two huge tax cuts to upper-income 
 >people like me and to special interests, they've 
 >run these big deficits . . . and they're saddling 
 >it on our children. John Kerry's got a better 
 >plan.'' 
 > 
 >He praised Kerry's campaign, recalling days 
 >during the Democratic primary contest when 
 >Democrats had given Kerry up for dead and 
 >even this summer when many Democrats 
 >despaired that Kerry was letting Bush get 
 >the best of him. 
 > 
 >In September, just days before his surgery, 
 >Clinton himself called Kerry and engaged 
 >him in a 90-minute analysis of what Kerry 
 >needed to do. Around then, old Clinton 
 >hands began to join the campaign, 
 >among them former Clinton spokesmen 
 >Joe Lockhart and Michael McCurry. 
 > 
 >``I'm very proud of the campaign John 
 >Kerry has run. He never gives up,'' Clinton 
 >said. 
 > 
 >The Kerry camp sees Clinton as an 
 >especially powerful draw with blocs of 
 >voters that Democrats think they must 
 >motivate to get the high turnout Kerry 
 >will need to win, among them black, 
 >Latino and Jewish voters. 
 > 
 >After the rally, Kerry and Clinton lunched 
 >together and participated in a teleconference 
 >with about 2,000 black ministers across 
 >the country as part of a get-out-the-vote 
 >drive. 
 > 
 >Clinton was scheduled to campaign in 
 >Florida today. McCurry said Clinton 
 >would determine his pace on a 
 >day-to-day basis depending on his 
 >stamina. But he said Clinton planned 
 >to campaign later this week in New 
 >Mexico, Nevada and in his home state 
 >of Arkansas, where Bush appears to be 
 >losing his lead. 
 > 
 >Kerry, meanwhile, dropped plans to stump 
 >in Colorado where polls show Bush's lead 
 >increasing. McCurry, however, said the 
 >campaign intended to maintain an ad 
 >presence in the state. 
 > 
 >For today, the campaign planned events 
  
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