Text 1233, 107 rader
Skriven 2004-08-11 19:35:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Principles ?
====================
Exactly.... Like most liberals...

===================

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128732,00.html

Cheney: Kerry Lacks Deep 'Convictions' 
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
 

JOPLIN, Mo. — Vice President Dick Cheney (search) said Wednesday that 
Democratic Sen. John Kerry (search) lacks "deeply held convictions about 
right and wrong" as he argued that voters would make a grave mistake if 
they replaced the current commander in chief. 

Campaigning for the Bush-Cheney ticket in this swing state, the vice 
president opened the session with some of his harshest criticism of 
Kerry, saying he wouldn't trust the four-term lawmaker to make decisions 
about going to war.

"We don't want to turn that responsibility over to somebody who doesn't 
have deeply held convictions about right and wrong," Cheney said. "And I 
must say, I look at the record of our opponents. There is a lot of 
hesitation and uncertainty."

Separately, the Bush-Cheney campaign (search) released a statement from 
the vice president in which he said Kerry "has had some difficulty 
explaining where he stands on the liberation of Iraq."

Kerry voted in October 2002 to give President Bush the authority to wage 
war but has been critical of the president's handling of the conflict, 
arguing that the incumbent failed to assemble strong allied support and 
rushed to war on faulty intelligence.

Questioned Monday about whether he stands by the vote despite the 
failure to find weapons of mass destruction, Kerry said he did, but 
added that Bush used the authority poorly, with little thought to an end 
game.


"John Kerry is caught in a tangled web of all his shifts and changes. We 
need a commander in chief who is steady and steadfast," Cheney said.

Responding to the criticism, Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said, "The sad 
fact is that Dick Cheney spends his time on the campaign trail launching 
vitriolic attacks because this White House has no record to run on."

Cheney is on a three-state Midwest campaign swing to states where Kerry 
is even or holds a small edge. The race is dead even in Missouri, but 
Kerry and running mate John Edwards lead Bush-Cheney by a small margin 
in Ohio, and a new poll in Michigan shows the Democrats up.

Bush won Missouri in 2000 and has been back 20 times since. Kerry has 
visited six times in 2004.

Cheney used his appearance to defend the White House policy limiting 
federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, saying Bush would 
continue to defend "the culture of life" in a second term.

"I don't think there should be any doubt in anybody's mind where he's 
headed when it comes to those kind of issues. I think he's been rock 
solid on it," Cheney said during a 45-minute question-and-answer session 
in which he was accompanied by his wife, Lynne.

The questions, all friendly, came from an invitation-only crowd of about 
500 people chosen by local Republican leaders in this conservative swath 
in southwest Missouri.

Scientists say the research holds promise for curing a host of diseases, 
but it requires the destruction of days-old human embryos, which some 
equate to the killing of human life. Bush's policy allows federal 
funding for research using embryos that were destroyed before he set his 
policy.

Polls show that most Americans support the research and Democrats are 
trying to use it to attract undecided voters.

The Cheneys noted this was the first time they conducted a question-and-
answer session as a pair.

"It's a test of our marriage," Mrs. Cheney joked.

"We may be in for a surprise," the vice president said.

Asked about the economy, Cheney suggested that last week's statistics on 
employment, showing fewer people working than expected, were not an 
accurate measure of how many people are working.

Last week, the government reported that just 32,000 net jobs were added 
in July, the smallest gain in hiring since December. Economists think 
this measures the health of the economy better than the alternate 
statistic, a survey of households, that Cheney cited.

"We feel pretty good about things," Cheney said. The next step, he said, 
is to make the tax cuts permanent. "That will be right at the top of our 
agenda going forward," he said.

Outside the hand-picked crowd, even in this conservative part of the 
state, Cheney had his critics. But they knew they were in the minority.

"I wish I could tell you how we really feel -- they'd throw us out," 
said Leroy Jackson of Joplin, retired from a trucking company, who was 
talking politics with his wife over eggs at Denny's.


--- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10
 * Origin:  (1:226/600)