Bush’s credibility attacked
Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy has said President George Bush suffers from a widening credibility gap, nowhere moreso than on the issue of Iraq.
In delivering the Democrats’ weekly radio address, Kennedy said on Saturday the Republican president had failed to level with the American people on several fronts – including the economy, health care, taxes, education and Iraq.
“For the past three years, since President Bush took office, we have seen a widening credibility gap between what the administration says and what it does,” the senator said.
Kennedy is working closely with his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, fellow Massachusetts senator John Kerry.
‘Misleading America’
And his attack on Bush reflected a Democratic ad this week that accused the president of “misleading America.” “Look at the record,” Kennedy said.
He noted that Bush declared last month that “there is good momentum when it comes to the creation of new jobs.” Yet, Kennedy said, “families across America know better.”
“President Bush’s only economic policy is tax breaks for the wealthy. He said it would create 300,000 jobs last month. The actual number was 21,000.” Kennedy said.
“We’ve also seen a monumental credibility gap with this administration on education.”
Health care
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Edward Kennedy (R) is working |
The senator claimed the president’s No Child Left Behind programme had been a failure as the result of the administration refusing to adequately fund it.
“If you peel back the promises on health care, you see the administration’s true colors, too,” Kennedy said, saying Bush had helped the health industry at the expense of everyone else.
Kennedy had his toughest words for the Iraq war. “In making the case for war, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice spoke of the ‘mushroom cloud’ from a nuclear Saddam (Hussein).”
“The White House press office specifically called the threat ‘imminent.’ Vice President (Dick) Cheney said he was ‘convinced’ that Saddam would be acquiring nuclear weapons ‘fairly soon.'”
‘Urgent threat’
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“As we now know, it was all a distraction. There was no immediate threat. No nuclear weapons. No persuasive link to al-Qaida. But we went to war anyway.” Senator Edward Kennedy |
“President Bush spoke in terms the intelligence community never used (and) called Iraq a ‘unique and urgent threat,'” Kennedy said.
“As we now know, it was all a distraction. There was no immediate threat. No nuclear weapons. No persuasive link to al-Qaida. But we went to war anyway.”
“The most important decision a president ever makes is the decision on war and peace,” Kennedy said. “No president who takes our country to war like that deserves to be re-elected.”