The Hindu : International : Cheney attacks Kerry as unfit to lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 03, 2004

International

International

Cheney attacks Kerry as unfit to lead

By Julian Borger

NEW YORK, SEPT. 2. The Bush campaign on Wednesday night sent the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, on the attack against John Kerry, portraying the Democratic challenger as a man suffering from ``confusion of conviction.''

Mr. Cheney's offensive in his address to the Republican convention was aimed at presenting Mr. Kerry as unfit to lead the country at a time of peril.

Anne Womack, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cheney, said he would contrast the U.S. President George W. Bush's ``demonstrated leadership and decisiveness versus Senator Kerry's confusion of conviction — both in foreign and domestic policy — that he is demonstrated during his 20 years in the Senate''.

The Cheney speech was designed to set the scene for tonight's climactic convention speech by Mr. Bush, allowing the President to focus on his own agenda and his plans for the U.S. ``war on terror''.

Mr. Bush was due to arrive in New York on Wednesday night and watch his deputy's performance from a New York fire station, reinforcing a persistent theme of the convention — Mr. Bush's resolve following the September 11 attacks and his supposed bond with survivors.

An offensive war

His speech tonight is expected to restate his determination to mount an offensive war against foreign terrorists and set out a programme of domestic reform aimed at rewriting the tax code and privatising government pensions.

Earlier on Wednesday, Karl Rove, the President's chief political strategist, also went on the offensive, alleging that Mr. Kerry's anti-war activism after his return from Vietnam ``tarnished the records and service'' of fellow veterans.

The Kerry campaign denounced the remarks as ``outrageous'' but they once more put the Democratic camp on the defensive over the candidate's war record.

Repeated attacks by anti-Kerry veterans, accusing him of lying about his war record, appear to have had some impact at the polls. A narrow Kerry lead at the beginning of the month has been turned into a small edge for Mr. Bush in the past two weeks.

Rumours spread on Wednesday of dissatisfaction among senior Democrats over how Mr. Kerry has handled the Bush assault on his Vietnam record. He showed signs he was taking the criticism seriously by hiring new staff, including such veterans of the Clinton era as the former White House spokesman, Joe Lockhart.

Kerry hits back

Mr. Kerry also hit back on Wednesday, attempting to switch the debate from the Vietnam war to the Iraq conflict. He ditched a political tradition under which a presidential candidate refrains from campaigning during his opponent's party convention, and appeared before the annual meeting of the biggest veterans' group, the American Legion, in Nashville, Tennessee.

``I would never have gone to war without a plan to win the peace,'' he said. ``President Bush now admits he miscalculated in Iraq. In truth, his miscalculation was ignoring the advice that was given to him, including the best advice of America's own military.''

Mr. Kerry criticised the President for admitting on Monday that the ``war on terror'' could not be won, an admission Mr. Bush retracted in his own address to the American Legion on Tuesday. He said the U.S. ``is winning'' and ``will win''.

Adding to Mr. Kerry's woes was the news on Wednesday that Ralph Nader, the independent third candidate in the race, had succeeded in collecting enough signatures to put his name on the ballot in the pivotal swing state of Florida. —

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section

Crisis talks on as hostage deadline passes

Anwar barred from politics for some time

Kasuri retained as Foreign Minister

Commonwealth curbs on poaching of teachers

Cheney attacks Kerry as unfit to lead

Sculptures to go on show

Israel threatens to strike Syria

Lawyers imposed on Milosevic

Koizumi steps up heat over disputed islands

Iran set to resume uranium processing

U.S. condemns killing of Nepalese

`KGL paid abductors half a million dollars'