Either that, or he’s just dense (I dount he’s THAT dense, but apparently feels that most people are, including the press.) When , oh , when, wil the press get some balls or gumption and stand up for some accuracy?
President Bush has a new favorite line. In several recent speeches, he has asserted that his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, said that even in light of the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he still supports the President’s decision to go to war there. But that is in fact not what Kerry said. The Massachusetts Senator stated that, knowing what he knows now, he still would have voted to give Bush the authority to invade Iraq.
It’s a subtle but important distinction. Just because Bush had the authority to go to war doesn’t mean he had to invade Iraq at the time and in the manner that he did, or at all. And Senator Kerry has repeatedly criticized President Bush for the way in which he decided to invade Iraq and has handled the war.
Here’s what John Kerry said at the Grand Canyon on August 9 when asked if he still would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing war in Iraq, according to the Associated Press: “I’ll answer it directly. Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it is the right authority for a president to have but I would have used that authority effectively.”
President Bush has repeatedly twisted this statement into the suggestion that Kerry would have invaded Iraq. On August 12 at an appearance before the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of Americat an appearance before the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Bush said, “The other day [Kerry] said that knowing what we know today, he agreed that the use of force in Iraq was necessary.”