NEW YORK, 7 August 2004 — Raising the stakes in the political fight over terrorism, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry responded to a question at a minority journalists convention in Washington Thursday, saying he would have acted more quickly than President Bush did when he received word of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Bush spent seven minutes listening to “The Pet Goat” being read at a Florida elementary school after his chief of staff, Andrew Card, whispered, “America is under attack,” as televisions cameras recorded the anxious scene.
“Had I been reading to children and had my top aide whisper in my ear that America is under attack, I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to,” Kerry said before flying to Missouri to resume his cross-country campaign trip. “And I would have attended to it.”
Later, in Missouri, the Democratic challenger said he’d never waver — “I can fight a more effective, smarter and better war on terror that actually makes America safer,” Kerry told voters.
Kerry suggested that Bush wasn’t up to the task. “Americans want to know that the person they choose as president has all of the skills and the ability, all of the mental toughness, all of the gut instinct necessary to be a strong commander in chief,” he said, adding that there is a “clear choice” between Bush and himself.
Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani immediately came to Bush’s defense: “John Kerry is an indecisive candidate who has demonstrated an inconsistent position on the war on terror, who voted against funding for our troops at war and who cannot give a clear answer on his position concerning the decision to remove Saddam Hussein,” Giuliani said.
“John Kerry must be frustrated in his campaign if he is armchair quarterbacking, based on cues from Michael Moore,” Giuliani said in a statement released by Bush’s campaign.
Giuliani was referring to the filmmaker whose documentary, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” belittles Bush for his delay in leaving the classroom. Bush has said he stayed seated to keep from alarming the children.
Kerry spokesman David Wade said the candidate had not seen “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
But all week Kerry’s campaign speech echoed a theme of the scathing documentary on Bush — the charge that Bush puts the interests of Saudi Arabia ahead of America’s.
At a rally before he and his running mate John Edwards embarked on a train trip across the West, Kerry drew a roar of applause when he said: “I want America’s security to depend on America’s ingenuity and creativity, not the Saudi royal family.”
His comment alluded to his push for more investment in alternative energy to curb US reliance on foreign oil. Kerry plans to focus on that issue, and will focus on an energy plan that includes investing $20 billion over 10 years to spur development of clean-burning fuels and environmentally friendly technology.
Meanwhile, campaign tactics hit a new low when a Republican-backed group released a new 60-second televised advertisement of several Vietnam veterans criticizing Kerry. “When the chips were down, you could not count on John Kerry, said veteran Larry Thurlow.
What is not said in the ad is that Thurlow didn’t serve on Kerry’s swiftboat. Thurlow says he witnessed the events that led to Kerry winning a Bronze Star and the last of his three Purple Hearts. But all of Kerry’s crewmates support the candidate and call him a hero.
“I deplore this kind of politics,” Sen. John McCain said a joint press briefing with Kerry at his side. McCain, chairman of Bush’s Arizona campaign, compared the ad to tactics used by Bush supporters against him during the bitterly contested 2000 GOP presidential primaries.
McCain urged President Bush and the White House to condemn the “dishonest and dishonorable” commercial.
Bush’s spokesman declined to do so.
Instead, White House spokesman Scott McClellan denounced the form of financing behind it. “The president thought he got rid of this unregulated soft money when he signed the bipartisan campaign finance reform into law,” McClellan said.
A chief sponsor of that bill, which Bush initially opposed, was John McCain.
