Bush’s ad stays
Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said the ads will continue
through Sunday, the final day of the Athens Games. The Olympic
Committee asked Bush to take the ad off the air.
"We are on firm legal ground to mention the Olympics to make a factual
point in a political advertisement," Stanzel said.
Fog of war
President Bush admitted in an interview with the NY Times that things
didn’t go as planned in Iraq. White House press secretary Scott
McClellan said there were "things we expected to happen that did not
happen" such as a flood of refugees, starvation and widespread
destruction of oil fields.
McClellan said the United States had expected Iraq's Republican Guard
forces to stand and fight rather than disappear into the population.
"That created a different set of circumstances on the ground that we
had to adjust to and deal with, and we are," he said.
Politics of the poor
The
LA Times covers the politics of the poor between the two
campaigns as Kerry lambasted Bush for the increase of the number of
poor in 2003:
Kerry and Bush differ on the policies for the neediest families. Kerry
has urged boosting the hourly minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 by 2007,
increasing subsidies for child care and expanding the earned-income
tax credit for the working poor.
Bush has mostly promoted programs to help low-income families buy
their own homes, efforts to expand government partnership with
religiously based charities that serve the poor, and elements of his
tax cuts that benefit lower-income families. He hasn't ruled out an
increase in the minimum wage, but neither has he advanced the idea.
Contrast between the candidates is starker on healthcare — arguably
the clearest divergence between the two sides on a domestic issue.
At the core of Kerry's plan is a swap of responsibilities, in which
Washington would assume the cost of insuring the poorest children if
states agreed to help fund coverage for millions of working poor
adults.
In the plan's most distinctive element, Kerry would commit the federal
government to paying most of patients' bills beyond $50,000 a year.
Kenneth E. Thorpe, an Emory University professor and former Clinton
administration official, has estimated that Kerry's plan would cover
about 27 million of the uninsured, including virtually all children.
He pegs the net cost over the next decade at about $650 billion.
Bush's plan is more modest. His main idea is to provide tax credits of
no more than $1,000 to individuals and $3,000 to families to buy
insurance. He also wants to provide tax incentives to encourage more
use of tax-favored health savings accounts.
Kerry’s Record: 94 pages missing
The Chicago Sun Times has a story that offers serious questions
concerning Sen. John Kerry’s past service in Vietnam:
One award, three citations
But a third citation exists that appears to be the earliest. And it is
not on the Kerry campaign website. It was issued by Vice Adm. Elmo
Zumwalt, commander of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam. This citation
lacks the language in the Hyland citation or that added by the Lehman
version, but includes another 170 words in a detailed description of
Kerry's attack on a Viet Cong ambush, his killing of an enemy soldier
carrying a loaded rocket launcher, as well as military equipment
captured and a body count of dead enemy.
Maj. Anthony Milavic, a retired Marine Vietnam veteran, calls the
issuance of three citations for the same medal "bizarre." Milavic
hosts Milinet, an Internet forum popular with the military community
that is intended "to provide a forum in military/political affairs."
Normally in the case of a lost citation, Milavec points out, the
awardee simply asks for a copy to be sent to him from his service
personnel records office where it remains on file. "I have never heard
of multi-citations from three different people for the same medal
award," he said. Nor has Burkett: "It is even stranger to have three
different descriptions of the awardee's conduct in the citations for
the same award."
So far, there are also two varying citations for Kerry's Bronze Star,
one by Zumwalt and the other by Lehman as secretary of the Navy, both
posted on johnkerry.com.
Kerry's website also carries a DD215 form revising his DD214, issued
March 12, 2001, which adds four bronze campaign stars to his Vietnam
service medal. The campaign stars are issued for participation in any
of the 17 Department of Defense named campaigns that extended from
1962 to the cease-fire in 1973.
However, according to the Navy spokesman, Kerry should only have two
campaign stars: one for "Counteroffensive, Phase VI," and one for
"Tet69, Counteroffensive."
94 pages of records unreleased?
Reporting by the Washington Post's Michael Dobbs points out that
although the Kerry campaign insists that it has released Kerry's full
military records, the Post was only able to get six pages of records
under its Freedom of Information Act request out of the "at least a
hundred pages" a Naval Personnel Office spokesman called the "full
file."
What could that more than 100 pages contain? Questions have been
raised about President Bush's drill attendance in the reserves, but
Bush received his honorable discharge on schedule. Kerry, who should
have been discharged from the Navy about the same time -- July 1, 1972
-- wasn't given the discharge he has on his campaign Web site until
July 13, 1978. What delayed the discharge for six years? This raises
serious questions about Kerry's performance while in the reserves that
are potentially far more damaging than those raised against Bush.
Experts point out that even the official military records get screwed
up. Milavic is trying to get mistakes in his own DD214 file corrected.
In his opinion, "these entries are not prima facie evidence of lying
or unethical behavior on the part of Kerry or anyone else with
screwed-up DD214s."
Burkett, who has spent years working with the FBI, Department of
Justice and all of the military services uncovering fraudulent files
in the official records, is less charitable: "The multiple citations
and variations in the official record are reason for suspicion in
itself, even disregarding the current swift boat veterans'
controversy."
Poll watch, 8/27
Times poll shows Bush leads among registered voters 46% to 44%; in
Wisconsin, he leads 48% to 44%; and in Ohio, the president holds a 49%
to 44% advantage
Dueling testimony
Robert Novak has an exclusive print story in the NY Post with
Retired Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. Schachte has not wanted to
become involved in the swift boat controversies concerning Kerry’s
medals. However, he has come forward to give his testimony that Kerry
did not deserve his first Purple Heart.
"Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 [grenade launcher]," Schachte said
in a telephone interview from his home in Charleston, S.C. He said,
"Kerry requested a Purple Heart."
Purple Hearts are awarded for wounds suffered at the hands of the
enemy, not accidental self inflicted wounds as described by Schachte.
The real controversy that brought Schachte to discuss the matter is
the fact that some of Kerry’s supporters have said that he was not
present:
Two enlisted men who appeared at the podium with Kerry at the
Democratic National Convention in Boston have asserted that they were
alone in the small boat with Kerry, with no other officer present.
Schachte said it "was not possible" for Kerry to have gone out alone
so soon after joining the swift boat command in late November 1968.
Schachte is backed up:
Grant Hibbard, who as a lieutenant commander was Schachte's superior
officer, confirmed that Schachte always went on these skimmer missions
and said, "I don't think he [Kerry] was alone" on his first
assignment. Hibbard said he had told Kerry to "forget it" when he
asked for a Purple Heart.
The widow of Lieutenant Donald Droz says that Kerry deserves his
medals in a
Boston Globe story:
"John Kerry was a good friend, and a loyal friend to my late husband,"
she said in a telephone interview from her office in San Francisco.
"My husband isn't here to speak, and all I can do is to speak in his
name. I don't feel I can remain silent anymore."
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