RNC: Day 4

www.dispatch.com (it's a pay site so here is their excluse interview with W yesterday after his rally in Columbus where he discusses what to expect tonite. Hopefully it's ok to post teh article in here if not Admins please remove):

President Bush will ask Americans tonight for a second term by promising to transform government’s role at home and abroad, enabling citizens to take advantage of a changing economy while spreading liberty around the world.

Tapping a copy of the speech he will deliver to the Republican National Convention — "43 minutes of sheer wisdom," he said with a smile — the president said he will offer an unapologetic defense of the war in Iraq and boldly proclaim the nation’s obligation to spread global freedom.

"Overseas, I’m going to be talking about peace," he said. "That’s what we’re doing, we’re changing the world, and this will be liberty central."

Bush previewed the speech yesterday en route to Columbus in a wideranging, 45-minute interview aboard Air Force One with Dispatch Publisher John F. Wolfe and Associate Publisher and President Michael F. Curtin.

The White House suggested the venue in response to The Dispatch’s request for Bush to meet with the newspaper’s editorial board. The same request has been made to Bush’s opponent, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

The president will accept his party’s nomination tonight during a televised speech to a sharply divided nation. National polls have shown Bush and Kerry running neck and neck — and a Dispatch Poll published Sunday had the race even in Ohio, 46 percent for each.

Confronted with a recession, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack and corporate scandals, Bush said he has not shrunk from making difficult choices, acknowledging he doesn’t expect "everybody to agree with everything I’ve done."

"Look, when you make hard decisions, decisions of war and peace, people are going to be emotional about it," he said. "We’ve been given a lot of problems to solve, dealing with them in a philosophically consistent way, and the country’s getting better."

Stressing that theme — the economy is improving and the nation is safer because of his wars on terrorism and in Iraq — Bush will outline a different role for government.

"I’m going to talk about how America’s a changing place and the role of government is to transform parts of government — institutions, retirement systems, rules for work — to adjust to the future."

He will repeat recent campaign proposals to allow employees to choose time off instead of overtime for extra hours worked; to let younger workers divert a portion of Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts; and to permit citizens to create health savings accounts so that they and their doctors — not insurance companies — make decisions about medical treatment.

Bush said he’ll call for an increase in community college spending and propose education programs to prepare workers for new, higher-paying jobs.

Asked whether he would propose reworking the nation’s tax system, he replied, coyly: "Maybe. I’m trying to save a few things for the speech."

The president contended that the economy is growing because of his tax cuts and that he has a five-year plan to halve the deficit — projected at a record $445 billion this year. The deficit, he argued, was created by a recession he inherited, a stock-market correction that "caused a huge loss of revenues to the government," necessary post-9/11 spending for homeland security and the war in Iraq.

"When we’re at war, I will spend what’s necessary to win the war."

Bush acknowledged that Ohio has not recovered economically like other states; during his tenure, more than 250,000 jobs have disappeared, including about 170,000 in the manufacturing sector. Poverty in the state increased last year, and Cleveland had the highest poverty rate of any U.S. city.

"There’s no question Ohio’s been hit hard," Bush said. "But the fundamental question is how do you react. What’s necessary to make sure Ohio recovers?"

His prescription for improving business in the state includes an aggressive free-trade policy, and lawsuit and healthcare reforms.

"We’re going to expand more community health centers for low-income Americans so that primary care and preventive care is delivered in these centers, not in emergency rooms," Bush said.

Kerry spokeswoman Kathy Roeder said Bush has "made wrong choices on transforming the government, so now we can do less on the people’s priorities such as health care and taking care of homeland defense.

"Credibility is on the ballot this year, and there are a lot of promises that President Bush has already broken. He’s bloated the budget, and the deficit is the largest in this country’s history."

In his speech, Bush adamantly will defend his decision to invade Iraq and oust its dictator, Saddam Hussein, in a war that has claimed the lives of at least 976 U.S. troops.

"After Sept. 11, we had to look at Saddam Hussein in a different light. He was a threat. We tried all diplomatic means. The diplomatic means failed.

"You’ll hear me say it tomorrow: I had a choice to make as the president. Do I ignore that threat and hope for the best with Saddam Hussein, a sworn enemy, or take action?"

Roeder disagreed. "(President) Bush certainly has failed to produce a plan to win the war in Iraq. He continues to link terrorism with going to war in Iraq, and that gives him less and less credibility every day."

Bush said his administration is determined to "seize this moment . . . to promote freedom in the greater Middle East. Some say it can’t happen. I strongly disagree."

He said the 9/11 attack left him with no option but to attack terrorism at its source against an "ideologically based enemy that uses terror to shake the will of the world."

"What the United States is going to do is provide the conditions where liberty can rise up," he said. "You’re watching the war on terror and the fundamental question is: Is America going to lead or are we going to sit back and hope that these guys change their ways? I equate this struggle as the same struggle against communism. It’s a different kind of -ism."

 

Pres. Bush is off to a pretty good start. No Kerry bashing (yet) and he is hitting on some key issues...

 

It's good that he's talkign about his plans are important.

Of course we can look at his other plans which he let slip by wayside, such as No Child Left Behind, Aids money for Africa, etc.

I don't expect him to attack Kerry so much, because he has a pack of attack dogs around him, that have already spoken.

 

Love what he's saying about a "nest egg" for retirement for younger workers, taken from taxes that government can't get to.

 

I'd like to know how he plans on paying for it all.

 

It's a baby step, and he talked very little about what he's done the past four years... probably because he's done very little worth talking about.

If we are to judge by his last four years he plans to pay for it all by increasing our debt.

Which as I've maintaned before is a huge waste of money. In 2001 19% of the budget went to pay the debt. We got nothing in return of 19% of the taxes we payed. The only part of the budget that a larger percentage of the money went to is defense. After defense the largest chunk of tax payer money went to nothing other than interest on our debt. That money didn't even help us repay the debt, which has grown like crazy under this president. Instead the money only pays the interest. If we could actually reduce the debt the govt. could afford better tax cuts than Bush has given. Imagine if we only cut in half, everyone's tax's could be cut by almost 10%.

 

He just said Nu-cu-ler.

And another hippie got by all that security...pathetic.

 

How many hecklers were ushered out at the DNC in Boston again?

 

Saddam tried to comply to show he didn't have weapons... which he didn't even have. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2585779.stm

The Taleban isn't gone either.

 

Maybe security at the DNC was good.

 

John Kerry isn't kidding, he DID vote for it before. It failed when he voted for it.

http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=155

 

You miss the point. If he believed in it the first time, he should vote yes the second time.

FLIP FLOP

 

Actually Michael Moore posted on his website information for how protestors could get into the RNC and cause a disruption

 

No, we don't even know what else was in there. 300 million out of 87 billion is .3%.

 

IROC it do you know why he voted against it after he voted for it?

 

Lack of intestinal fortitude would be the clearest reason.

 

That's what I thought.

 

IROC it, you might want to put on a cowboy hat, your ignorance is showing.