Kerry rips into Bush over Iraqi explosives
The Massachusetts senator, energised by his beloved Boston Red Sox’s long-awaited win in baseball’s World Series and a joint appearance with rocker Bruce Springsteen, launched a withering attack on Bush over 380 tons of missing explosives in Iraq and chided his rival for invoking the memory of President John Kennedy.
Kerry said the weapons were not “where they were supposed to be, you were warned to guard them, you didn’t guard them. They’re not secure, and, guess what, according to George Bush’s own words, he shouldn’t be our commander-in-chief and I couldn’t agree more.”
For the fourth consecutive day, Kerry assailed Bush over the disclosure that more than 340 tons of explosives were missing in Iraq, and said the Republican president’s attempt to compare himself to John F Kennedy was off the mark.
“When the Bay of Pigs went sour, John Kennedy had the courage to look America in the eye and say, ‘I take responsibility, it’s my fault,’” Kerry said, referring to a bungled invasion of Cuba in 1961. “John Kennedy knew how to take responsibility for the mistakes he made and, Mr President, it’s long since time for you to start taking responsibility for the mistakes you made.” The two men raced from one Midwestern state to another in the closing days of their close, contentious campaign. Voting is on Tuesday, November 2.
Opinion polls, were of little use in forecasting the outcome of the election. Over and over, they made the race out to be a statistical tie, and battleground states too close to call.
Bush began his day in Saginaw, Michigan, with an unstinting attack on Kerry.
“A president cannot blow in the wind,” he said of Kerry. “Senator Kerry has taken a lot of different positions, but he’s rarely taken a stand. Consistency is not the senator’s strong suit.”
Kerry campaigned first in Ohio, arguably the key to victory next Tuesday.
A Boston Red Sox cap perched on his head, he recalled that last year when his campaign was struggling, a caller to a radio programme said, “John Kerry won’t be president until the Red Sox win the World Series.”
“Well, we’re on our way,” he said to cheers.
Bush had his own World Series tie-in. Boston pitcher Curt Schilling urged TV viewers to vote for the president.
Kerry’s crowd was raucous, so noisy that at one point he said, “I hope George Bush can hear that - that is the rumble of change comin’ at him.”
Kerry has turned the issue of missing explosives into a major focus of his campaign this week, and his running mate joined in.
“They had a responsibility to secure this material,” said his running mate John Edwards of North Carolina. “It was important for securing Iraq, it was important for the safety of our troops, it was important for keeping that material out of the hands of terrorists.”
Bush sought to turn the controversy to his own advantage. He said his rival was showing a “complete disregard for the facts. Senator Kerry will say anything to get elected,” he said. Bush’s campaign surrogates rallied to his defence.
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, said the troops in Iraq, not the president, bore the responsibility for searching for the explosives, and he said no one knows if any mistakes were made.
“John Kerry wants to pretend we do know what happened,” Giuliani told Today. “We don’t know what happened. The best possibility is those explosives were gone even before the troops got there - at least it’s an equal possibility. John Kerry hasn’t admitted that. Instead, John Kerry became an attack dog.”
Polls suggest Bush and Kerry are running even not only in Iowa and Michigan, but in an improbable variety of other battleground states and nationally as well. Bush pressed hard for crossover votes: “If you’re a Democrat, and your dreams and goals are not found in the far left wing of the Democrat party, I’d be honoured to have your vote.”
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