Friday, October 29, 2004
Holbrooke wins Round 1 in bin Laden spin battleRound 1 in the bin Laden spin game goes to the Kerry camp. Immediately after CNN aired the new video, showing the remarkably composed, healthy-looking, and elegantly robed al-Qaida leader sticking it one more time in Bush's eye, Kerry foreign policy advisor Richard Holbrooke stuck it in the president's other eye. The video, Holbrooke told Wolf Blitzer, "raises the troubling question about why this grotesque mass murderer is still out there" thumbing his nose at America. As Blitzer tried to counter by pointing out that polls show most Americans think Bush will do a better job of protecting them against terrorism, Holbrooke quickly shot back, "If Bush is so much more effective, why is bin Laden still on the loose?"
"We should have closed the door on him in the Tora Bora mountains -- had we not subcontracted the job to Afghan warlords, we would've captured him. Now he's able to issue these pernicious threats."
For a response from the Bush camp, Blitzer turned to the AEI's Danielle Pletka, who seemed overwrought and unable to look directly at the camera. The Bush advisor took immediate exception to bin Laden's hurtful taunt that the president had spent a bit too long listening to the story of the pet goat on the morning of Sept. 11. "I'm glad to hear that Michael Moore is giving aid and comfort to the enemy," she snapped, her eyes darting everywhere but at the camera. Pletka, in keeping with the frenzied, final-days tone of the Bush campaign, then ripped into Holbrooke for trying to "exploit" the tape for political gain. "It's a lie we had bin Laden in our clutches and let him get away. And it's a lie that once we have him, the war on terror will be over." Whether this Osama-is-not-the-end-of-the-world line works with American voters is doubtful, however. Since the end of the world is precisely what bin Laden and the other berobed and bearded horsemen of the apolcalypse riding out of the Middle East keep threatening.
-- David Talbot
"We should have closed the door on him in the Tora Bora mountains -- had we not subcontracted the job to Afghan warlords, we would've captured him. Now he's able to issue these pernicious threats."
For a response from the Bush camp, Blitzer turned to the AEI's Danielle Pletka, who seemed overwrought and unable to look directly at the camera. The Bush advisor took immediate exception to bin Laden's hurtful taunt that the president had spent a bit too long listening to the story of the pet goat on the morning of Sept. 11. "I'm glad to hear that Michael Moore is giving aid and comfort to the enemy," she snapped, her eyes darting everywhere but at the camera. Pletka, in keeping with the frenzied, final-days tone of the Bush campaign, then ripped into Holbrooke for trying to "exploit" the tape for political gain. "It's a lie we had bin Laden in our clutches and let him get away. And it's a lie that once we have him, the war on terror will be over." Whether this Osama-is-not-the-end-of-the-world line works with American voters is doubtful, however. Since the end of the world is precisely what bin Laden and the other berobed and bearded horsemen of the apolcalypse riding out of the Middle East keep threatening.
-- David Talbot
Oct 29, 6:56 PM EDT
Fate of Missing Iraq Weapons Unresolved
By JOHN J. LUMPKINAssociated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The fate of up to 377 tons of high-grade explosives missing from an Iraqi depot remained unresolved a week after it became a hot issue in the presidential election. The Pentagon offered piecemeal information about operations at the base but was unable to say where the weapons went.
Some analysts are questioning the relevance of the debate, noting 377 tons is a pittance compared to the unclaimed arsenal left behind after Saddam Hussein's regime fell. Bush administration officials have repeatedly said some 400,000 tons of munitions and explosives have been either destroyed or are slated to be destroyed. They do not mention that, by military estimates, a minimum of 250,000 more tons remains unaccounted for.
On Friday, an Army major said his company had recovered and destroyed some of the munitions left at the Al-Qaqaa depot south of Baghdad after the invasion. A Pentagon spokesman asserted some of that was of the same type as the missing explosives that have become a major issue in the campaign.
Maj. Austin Pearson said his team removed the 250 tons of plastic explosives and other munitions on April 13, 2003 - 10 days after U.S. forces first reached the Al-Qaqaa site.
But those munitions were not located under the seal of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency - as the missing high-grade explosives had been. And Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita could not definitely say whether they were part of the missing 377 tons.
Di Rita sought to point to Pearson's comments as evidence that some RDX, one of the high-energy explosives, might have been removed from the site. RDX is also known as plastic explosive.
Whether Saddam's forces removed the explosives before U.S. forces arrived on April 3, 2003, or whether they fell into the hands of looters and insurgents afterward - because the site was not guarded by U.S. troops - has become a key issue.
The window in which the explosives were most likely removed from Al-Qaqaa opens on March 15, 2003 - five days before the war started - and closes in late May, when a U.S. weapons inspection team declared the depot stripped and looted.
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Summary Box: Iraq's Missing Explosives
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Staley says the insurgency had not flared up and there was little concern at the time for explosives that were not weapons of mass destruction.
AP VIDEO
Soldier Describes Removing Al-Qaqaa Arms
Two weeks ago, Iraqi officials told the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency that the explosives vanished as a result of "theft and looting ... due to lack of security" and said this took place after the invasion.
The explosives were known to be housed in storage bunkers at the sprawling Al-Qaqaa complex and nearby structures. U.N. nuclear inspectors placed fresh seals over the bunker doors in January 2003. The inspectors visited Al-Qaqaa for the last time that March 15 and reported that the seals were not broken, concluding the weapons were still inside at the time.
A U.S. military reconnaissance image, taken on March 17, shows two vehicles, presumably Iraqi, outside a bunker at Al-Qaqaa. But Di Rita said that bunker was not known to contain any of the 377 tons and that the image only shows that there was activity at the depot after U.N. inspectors left.
Troops from the 3rd Infantry Division first arrived on April 3 en route to Baghdad. They fought a battle with Iraqi forces inside Al-Qaqaa and moved on, leaving a battalion behind. That unit didn't specifically search for the 377 tons of missing high explosives but did find some munitions on the base. On April 6, the battalion left for Baghdad.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others have advanced the theory that the materials were removed before U.S. forces arrived, saying looting that much material would be impossible by small-scale thieves and that a large-scale theft would have involved many trucks and would have been detected.
About four days later, elements of the 101st Airborne Division moved into the area but did not search Al-Qaqaa. A unit spokesman said there was heavy looting in the area at the time.
On April 13, Pearson's ordnance-disposal team arrived and took 250 tons of munitions out and later destroyed them.
On April 18, a Minnesota television crew traveling with the 101st Airborne shot a videotape of troops as they first opened the bunkers at Al-Qaqaa, which shows what appeared to be high explosives still in barrels and bearing the markings of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
U.S. weapons hunters did not give the area a thorough search until May, when they searched every building on the compound over the course of those three visits, but they did not find any material or explosives marked by the IAEA.
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Purchase this AP story for reprint.
Fate of Missing Iraq Weapons Unresolved
By JOHN J. LUMPKINAssociated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The fate of up to 377 tons of high-grade explosives missing from an Iraqi depot remained unresolved a week after it became a hot issue in the presidential election. The Pentagon offered piecemeal information about operations at the base but was unable to say where the weapons went.
Some analysts are questioning the relevance of the debate, noting 377 tons is a pittance compared to the unclaimed arsenal left behind after Saddam Hussein's regime fell. Bush administration officials have repeatedly said some 400,000 tons of munitions and explosives have been either destroyed or are slated to be destroyed. They do not mention that, by military estimates, a minimum of 250,000 more tons remains unaccounted for.
On Friday, an Army major said his company had recovered and destroyed some of the munitions left at the Al-Qaqaa depot south of Baghdad after the invasion. A Pentagon spokesman asserted some of that was of the same type as the missing explosives that have become a major issue in the campaign.
Maj. Austin Pearson said his team removed the 250 tons of plastic explosives and other munitions on April 13, 2003 - 10 days after U.S. forces first reached the Al-Qaqaa site.
But those munitions were not located under the seal of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency - as the missing high-grade explosives had been. And Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita could not definitely say whether they were part of the missing 377 tons.
Di Rita sought to point to Pearson's comments as evidence that some RDX, one of the high-energy explosives, might have been removed from the site. RDX is also known as plastic explosive.
Whether Saddam's forces removed the explosives before U.S. forces arrived on April 3, 2003, or whether they fell into the hands of looters and insurgents afterward - because the site was not guarded by U.S. troops - has become a key issue.
The window in which the explosives were most likely removed from Al-Qaqaa opens on March 15, 2003 - five days before the war started - and closes in late May, when a U.S. weapons inspection team declared the depot stripped and looted.
PHOTO GALLERY
Latest photos from Iraq
Documents
Key Findings on WMD
Interactives
1000 U.S. Deaths
Iraq's New Government
Prison Abuse Scandal
Street Fighting
Tribes of Iraq
Reconstruction of Iraq
Coalition Casualties
Recent Stories
Fate of Missing Iraq Weapons Unresolved
U.S. Gearing Up for Fallujah Showdown
Woman Shocked by Claim She Was Slain
ElBaradei Dismisses Timing Accusations
Japan Trying to Identify Slain Hostage
Summary Box: Iraq's Missing Explosives
Lebanese Boy Freed by Captors in Iraq
Audio
Staley says the insurgency had not flared up and there was little concern at the time for explosives that were not weapons of mass destruction.
AP VIDEO
Soldier Describes Removing Al-Qaqaa Arms
Two weeks ago, Iraqi officials told the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency that the explosives vanished as a result of "theft and looting ... due to lack of security" and said this took place after the invasion.
The explosives were known to be housed in storage bunkers at the sprawling Al-Qaqaa complex and nearby structures. U.N. nuclear inspectors placed fresh seals over the bunker doors in January 2003. The inspectors visited Al-Qaqaa for the last time that March 15 and reported that the seals were not broken, concluding the weapons were still inside at the time.
A U.S. military reconnaissance image, taken on March 17, shows two vehicles, presumably Iraqi, outside a bunker at Al-Qaqaa. But Di Rita said that bunker was not known to contain any of the 377 tons and that the image only shows that there was activity at the depot after U.N. inspectors left.
Troops from the 3rd Infantry Division first arrived on April 3 en route to Baghdad. They fought a battle with Iraqi forces inside Al-Qaqaa and moved on, leaving a battalion behind. That unit didn't specifically search for the 377 tons of missing high explosives but did find some munitions on the base. On April 6, the battalion left for Baghdad.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others have advanced the theory that the materials were removed before U.S. forces arrived, saying looting that much material would be impossible by small-scale thieves and that a large-scale theft would have involved many trucks and would have been detected.
About four days later, elements of the 101st Airborne Division moved into the area but did not search Al-Qaqaa. A unit spokesman said there was heavy looting in the area at the time.
On April 13, Pearson's ordnance-disposal team arrived and took 250 tons of munitions out and later destroyed them.
On April 18, a Minnesota television crew traveling with the 101st Airborne shot a videotape of troops as they first opened the bunkers at Al-Qaqaa, which shows what appeared to be high explosives still in barrels and bearing the markings of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
U.S. weapons hunters did not give the area a thorough search until May, when they searched every building on the compound over the course of those three visits, but they did not find any material or explosives marked by the IAEA.
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Purchase this AP story for reprint.
Show of Toulouse-Lautrec BeginsFri Oct 29, 3:19 PM ET
More than 250 pictures by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and others from the rakish atmosphere of artistic Paris at the end of the 1800s are the first of a series of exhibits the National Gallery of Art will feature to celebrate French painting.
Both art and lowlife characterized the city's Montmartre area art because rents were low for underpaid artists, and lowlifes because they frequented nightspots like the still popular Moulin Rouge.
The Montmartre show will be followed by one on Paul Cezanne and his portrayal of his native Provence in southern France and another on the Dada movement, which began in Switzerland in the early 1900s to mock much of the art that came before.
They will be preceded by a show of pictures from the career of Hungarian-born Andre Kertesz, a pioneer in the photography of everyday life, who did much of his work in Paris and later in New York.
Earl A. Powell III, director of the gallery, announced the program Friday in New York.
A descendant of the once-powerful counts of Toulouse, Toulouse-Lautrec inherited both an aristocratic background and a talent for art from his father the count, a good amateur painter.
The son suffered two falls that badly damaged both legs by the time he was 15, and his mother took the stunted young figure from the family estate near Albi, north of Toulouse, to study art in Paris three years later.
He adopted a Bohemian life in Montmarte that so shocked his noble parents that his father tried, with some success, to protect the family name by getting his son to use pseudonyms.
Toulouse-Lautrec died of alcoholism before his 37th birthday, after producing hundreds of posters many publicizing performers at the Moulin Rouge as well as paintings, watercolors, prints and thousands of drawings.
"He preferred the gaudy, vulgar, somewhat disreputable world of Montmartre to the world of his own social class," says the gallery's announcement.
The exhibit, in Washington from March 20 to June 12, will build around Toulouse-Lautrec's connection with Montmartre. It includes some of the 50-odd paintings he did from the mid-1880s to the mid-1890s that depicted houses of prostitution, where he lived for a time. The theme also drew attention from painters Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso.
Although centered on Toulouse-Lautrec, the exhibit will include work by his friends and associates fascinated by similar themes, including Vincent Van Gogh and Edouard Vuillard.
___
On the Net:
National Gallery of Art: http://www.nga.gov
More than 250 pictures by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and others from the rakish atmosphere of artistic Paris at the end of the 1800s are the first of a series of exhibits the National Gallery of Art will feature to celebrate French painting.
Both art and lowlife characterized the city's Montmartre area art because rents were low for underpaid artists, and lowlifes because they frequented nightspots like the still popular Moulin Rouge.
The Montmartre show will be followed by one on Paul Cezanne and his portrayal of his native Provence in southern France and another on the Dada movement, which began in Switzerland in the early 1900s to mock much of the art that came before.
They will be preceded by a show of pictures from the career of Hungarian-born Andre Kertesz, a pioneer in the photography of everyday life, who did much of his work in Paris and later in New York.
Earl A. Powell III, director of the gallery, announced the program Friday in New York.
A descendant of the once-powerful counts of Toulouse, Toulouse-Lautrec inherited both an aristocratic background and a talent for art from his father the count, a good amateur painter.
The son suffered two falls that badly damaged both legs by the time he was 15, and his mother took the stunted young figure from the family estate near Albi, north of Toulouse, to study art in Paris three years later.
He adopted a Bohemian life in Montmarte that so shocked his noble parents that his father tried, with some success, to protect the family name by getting his son to use pseudonyms.
Toulouse-Lautrec died of alcoholism before his 37th birthday, after producing hundreds of posters many publicizing performers at the Moulin Rouge as well as paintings, watercolors, prints and thousands of drawings.
"He preferred the gaudy, vulgar, somewhat disreputable world of Montmartre to the world of his own social class," says the gallery's announcement.
The exhibit, in Washington from March 20 to June 12, will build around Toulouse-Lautrec's connection with Montmartre. It includes some of the 50-odd paintings he did from the mid-1880s to the mid-1890s that depicted houses of prostitution, where he lived for a time. The theme also drew attention from painters Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso.
Although centered on Toulouse-Lautrec, the exhibit will include work by his friends and associates fascinated by similar themes, including Vincent Van Gogh and Edouard Vuillard.
___
On the Net:
National Gallery of Art: http://www.nga.gov
U.S.: Bin Laden Tape Appears Authentic
29 minutes ago
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) pledged Friday "to hunt down and destroy" Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) as a new videotape of the terrorist leader surfaced four days before the election.
President Bush (news - web sites) also was expected to talk about the tape.
The Bush administration said it believed the tape was authentic and had been made recently.
"As Americans, we are absolutely united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists," Kerry said as he boarded a campaign plane in West Palm Beach, Fla. "They're barbarians and I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes, period."
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the administration did not plan to raise the nation's threat level for now but that officials continued to analyze the situation.
"All Americans are united in our strength and resolve to defeat the ideology that bin Laden articulates in this tape," McClellan said. "We are doing everything we can to prevail in the war on terrorism and defeat the ideology of hatred that bin Laden articulates in this tape."
29 minutes ago
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) pledged Friday "to hunt down and destroy" Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) as a new videotape of the terrorist leader surfaced four days before the election.
President Bush (news - web sites) also was expected to talk about the tape.
The Bush administration said it believed the tape was authentic and had been made recently.
"As Americans, we are absolutely united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists," Kerry said as he boarded a campaign plane in West Palm Beach, Fla. "They're barbarians and I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes, period."
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the administration did not plan to raise the nation's threat level for now but that officials continued to analyze the situation.
"All Americans are united in our strength and resolve to defeat the ideology that bin Laden articulates in this tape," McClellan said. "We are doing everything we can to prevail in the war on terrorism and defeat the ideology of hatred that bin Laden articulates in this tape."
Bush, Kerry Begin Final Campaign Push
20 minutes ago
By TERENCE HUNT and DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writers
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Entering the final weekend of their long campaign, President Bush (news - web sites) and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) turned Friday to the closing arguments they hoped would seal victory — the president asserting he was best qualified to protect the nation and Kerry contending Bush didn't understand the problems facing the country.
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The threat of terrorism was underlined by a video of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) aired by the Arab television station Al-Jazeera. In his first video appearance in more than a year, bin Laden told Americans, "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands."
After countless speeches and hundreds of millions of dollars in commercials, there was little to say that hadn't already been said. Both sides focused on mobilizing supporters amid expectations that intense voter registration drives would swell Tuesday's turnout to record levels. In Ohio, Republicans lost a court appeal to block tens of thousands of voter registrations.
After four days of tough attacks on Bush over missing explosives in Iraq (news - web sites), Kerry said the election offered a fundamental choice. "Do you want four more years of the same failed course?" he asked voters in pivotal Florida, the state where the race was decided four years ago. "Or do you want a fresh start for America that takes us in the right direction?"
The Democratic challenger implored Floridians to "walk out of here and vote," a reference to early voting allowed in 32 states. In Tennessee, for example, 1,127,739 voted during the 15-day early period that ended Thursday evening.
Bush returned to the central theme of his campaign, that he is a stronger leader than Kerry and would do a better job of protecting the country.
"I've learned firsthand how hard it is to send young men and women into battle, even when the cause is right," the president said in New Hampshire, the only northeastern state he carried four years ago — and where he is trailing now, according to a new poll.
"The issues vary. The challenges are different every day. The polls go up. The polls go down. But a president's convictions must be consistent and true," Bush said. He did not even mention Kerry in his first speech in Manchester, N.H., but brought up his opponent at the next stop, in Portsmouth.
A spate of new state polls reflected the tightness of the race. The race is essentially tied in Wisconsin, which narrowly voted Democratic four years ago.
In keeping with his theme of national security, Bush was accompanied in New Hampshire by relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He singled out George Howard, a Port Authority officer who was off duty but responded when he heard the Twin Towers had been attacked.
Bush said Howard's mother, Arlene, gave him her son's police shield. "I will never forget the fallen," Bush said. "God bless you, Arlene." An event organizer mistakenly thought the president was ending his speech and fired off confetti cannons. The president continued his remarks.
Later in Ohio, Bush was campaigning with actor-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites).
Organizing a big finish, Bush planned election-eve rallies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Mexico and Texas, the White House said. Kerry's tentative plans for Monday call for stops in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. Looking beyond the election, the president was planning a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
After scalding Kerry earlier this week as weak and wavering, Bush told a rally in Portsmouth, "I'm sure Senator Kerry means well but his policies are the wrong policies at this time of threat."
Kerry appealed for Jewish support in Florida, saying he has been a reliable friend of Israel. "I have never wavered on one vote, on one resolution, on one issue," he said.
There was a flurry of last-minute political mail. In Florida conservative activists sent about a million fliers accusing Kerry of being weak on terrorism. One mailing showed an image of school children wearing gas masks and warned that the consequences of a Kerry presidency "are too frightening ... to imagine."
While Kerry muted his remarks, running mate John Edwards (news - web sites) said the missing explosives in Iraq and an FBI (news - web sites) investigation into Halliburton contracts in Iraq prove that new leadership is needed in the White House.
"They've been incompetent in Iraq and here at home they always look out for their powerful friends at the top," Edwards said.
Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) suggested that in raising the missing explosives this week, Kerry was belittling U.S. troops. "Our troops were doing their job," Cheney told a rally in Dimondale, Mich., calling Kerry an "armchair general."
Former New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith, a conservative Republican who once ran for president as an independent, endorsed Kerry on the eve of Bush's last trip to the state before the election.
___
AP White House Correspondent Terence Hunt reported from Washington; AP writer Deb Riechmann, traveling with Bush, reported from New Hampshire, and Nedra Pickler, traveling with Kerry, from Florida.
___
CAIRO, Oct. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in a video broadcast on Al-Jazeera television Friday night, threatened to launch new attacks against the United States similar to the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
In the video tape purportedly from Bin Laden, the first in more than one year, he directly claimed responsibility for the Sept. 11attacks on the US in 2001.
The video tape was aired just four days ahead of the US presidential election.
Bin Laden, in traditional white robes, a turban and a cloak, accused US president George W. Bush of misleading and deceiving the Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks,
"Despite entering the fourth year after Sept. 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you and therefore the reasons are still there to repeat what happened," said the al Qaida leader.
He charged that the Bush's administration was similar to "corrupt" Arab authorities.
He also told the Americans how to avoid attacks, saying the best way to avoid another disaster "was to avoid provoking Arab anger." He solemnly claimed that the US security does not depend on whether the Americans choose Bush or Democratic challenger John Kerry in the presidential election, but the US policy. Bin Laden explained the reason to carry out the deadly attacks on the United States in 2001, saying "we are a free people and we want to regain the freedom of our nation," adding the reason to attack the US remains, because of the US-biased policy towards Israel in the Middle East.
He said the Sept. 11 attacks would not be that severe if Bush were more alert.
The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera station has aired dozens of audio and video tapes said to be from Bin Laden and his allies. But it did not say how it got the tapes. Enditem
Related Story
In the video tape purportedly from Bin Laden, the first in more than one year, he directly claimed responsibility for the Sept. 11attacks on the US in 2001.
The video tape was aired just four days ahead of the US presidential election.
Bin Laden, in traditional white robes, a turban and a cloak, accused US president George W. Bush of misleading and deceiving the Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks,
"Despite entering the fourth year after Sept. 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you and therefore the reasons are still there to repeat what happened," said the al Qaida leader.
He charged that the Bush's administration was similar to "corrupt" Arab authorities.
He also told the Americans how to avoid attacks, saying the best way to avoid another disaster "was to avoid provoking Arab anger." He solemnly claimed that the US security does not depend on whether the Americans choose Bush or Democratic challenger John Kerry in the presidential election, but the US policy. Bin Laden explained the reason to carry out the deadly attacks on the United States in 2001, saying "we are a free people and we want to regain the freedom of our nation," adding the reason to attack the US remains, because of the US-biased policy towards Israel in the Middle East.
He said the Sept. 11 attacks would not be that severe if Bush were more alert.
The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera station has aired dozens of audio and video tapes said to be from Bin Laden and his allies. But it did not say how it got the tapes. Enditem
Related Story
New York's Fall Auction Results October 28, 2004
By Jay DeFoore
Photographs by William Eggleston, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Frank, Imogen Cunningham, Peter Lindbergh and Irving Penn achieved all-time high prices at New York's three major auction houses earlier this month.Christie's Oct. 15 sale netted $3.8 million, including world artist records for Eggleston, Mapplethorpe and Penn. Eggleston, whose prints have been soaring in price at nearly every auction over the past few years, reached a new high with "Memphis, circa 1970" printed in 1980, which sold to a European private collector for $253,900.Mapplethorpe's "Calla Lily, 1986" sold for a record $242,700, far surpassing the $55,000 high estimate. Penn's "Harlequin Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), New York, 1950" (printed in 1983) sold for $101,575. Josh Holdeman, international director and head of the photographs department at Christie's, says the sale "underscores the continued expansion, strength and stability of the international photographs market."Sotheby's Oct. 16 auction totaled $4.7 million over a high estimate of $4.2 million. The top lot of the sale was Diane Arbus' "A Jewish Giant with His Parents in the Living Room of Their Home, Bronx, N.Y.," which sold for $388,800 (est. $250/350,000) but was not a record for the artist.Sotheby's raised the bar for a Robert Frank print by selling his "Hoboken" to the Howard Greenberg Gallery for $198,400. Gallery owner Peter MacGill snapped up Imogen Cunningham's "Mills College Amphitheatre" for a cool $209,600, a new record, eclipsing the $100,000 high estimate.Other top lots included Arbus' "A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, N.Y.," $232,000 and Paul Strand's "Portrait, Rebecca," $176,000.Phillips de Pury & Company auctioned off a number of contemporary works in its Oct. 13 sale, most notably Peter Lindbergh's portrait of Keith Richards, which sold for $120,000, setting a personal best for a Lindbergh print. Other notables from Phillips' sale include Thomas Ruff's "Nude FE 16," $55,200; Claude Cahun's "Self-Portrait (Don't Kiss Me I'm in Training)," $48,000; Richard Avedon's "W.H. Auden," $36,000 and Andreas Gursky's "Dusseldorf Flughafen I," $36,000.The next major photographic auction will be held Nov. 8-9 by Phillips de Pury & Company. The sale will consist of more than 300 works from "Veronica's Revenge," a collection of contemporary photographs that are part of the Lambert Art Collection.*Note: All prices include buyer's premium.Contact News Editor Jay DeFoore (jdefoore@pdnonline.com)
By Jay DeFoore
Photographs by William Eggleston, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Frank, Imogen Cunningham, Peter Lindbergh and Irving Penn achieved all-time high prices at New York's three major auction houses earlier this month.Christie's Oct. 15 sale netted $3.8 million, including world artist records for Eggleston, Mapplethorpe and Penn. Eggleston, whose prints have been soaring in price at nearly every auction over the past few years, reached a new high with "Memphis, circa 1970" printed in 1980, which sold to a European private collector for $253,900.Mapplethorpe's "Calla Lily, 1986" sold for a record $242,700, far surpassing the $55,000 high estimate. Penn's "Harlequin Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), New York, 1950" (printed in 1983) sold for $101,575. Josh Holdeman, international director and head of the photographs department at Christie's, says the sale "underscores the continued expansion, strength and stability of the international photographs market."Sotheby's Oct. 16 auction totaled $4.7 million over a high estimate of $4.2 million. The top lot of the sale was Diane Arbus' "A Jewish Giant with His Parents in the Living Room of Their Home, Bronx, N.Y.," which sold for $388,800 (est. $250/350,000) but was not a record for the artist.Sotheby's raised the bar for a Robert Frank print by selling his "Hoboken" to the Howard Greenberg Gallery for $198,400. Gallery owner Peter MacGill snapped up Imogen Cunningham's "Mills College Amphitheatre" for a cool $209,600, a new record, eclipsing the $100,000 high estimate.Other top lots included Arbus' "A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, N.Y.," $232,000 and Paul Strand's "Portrait, Rebecca," $176,000.Phillips de Pury & Company auctioned off a number of contemporary works in its Oct. 13 sale, most notably Peter Lindbergh's portrait of Keith Richards, which sold for $120,000, setting a personal best for a Lindbergh print. Other notables from Phillips' sale include Thomas Ruff's "Nude FE 16," $55,200; Claude Cahun's "Self-Portrait (Don't Kiss Me I'm in Training)," $48,000; Richard Avedon's "W.H. Auden," $36,000 and Andreas Gursky's "Dusseldorf Flughafen I," $36,000.The next major photographic auction will be held Nov. 8-9 by Phillips de Pury & Company. The sale will consist of more than 300 works from "Veronica's Revenge," a collection of contemporary photographs that are part of the Lambert Art Collection.*Note: All prices include buyer's premium.Contact News Editor Jay DeFoore (jdefoore@pdnonline.com)
WHITHER THE CATHOLICS?
Fri Oct 22, 8:01 PM ET
By William F. Buckley Jr.
The annual dinner in New York City in honor of Al Smith is closely watched by politicians who want to have some idea of how the Catholic vote is going. The dinner itself is advertised as an ecumenical event to raise money for health services (half the proceeds go to Jewish hospitals), but it is very much a Catholic event, organized by the Catholic archdiocese.
William F. Buckley
Special attention was given to it this year because the featured speakers were not the presidential candidates. The inside story (easily penetrated by rudimentary political analysis) was that an invitation to Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) would be embarrassing, Kerry being not only pro-choice, but committed, if elected president, not to nominate any justice to the Supreme Court who wasn't in favor of Roe v. Wade (news - web sites), which is the constitutional right to an abortion discovered in 1973. Candidate Kerry has informed the voting public that, like Martin Luther, he was an altar boy. And indeed he is running as a Catholic, and the wonderment is: How should Catholics react to this Catholic candidate, given his permissive stand on abortion?
The way the Alfred E. Smith people handled that problem was nicely Jesuitical. They did invite a president -- a former president, George H.W. Bush. And they did invite a Democratic counterpart, not quite an ex-president, but an ex-governor. And Hugh Carey is eloquently anti-abortion.
Whether the Al Smith Dinner will be able to keep this up for very long is a serious question. The current New York governor is Republican, but pro-choice. His predecessor was a Democratic Catholic -- but also pro-choice. Hugh Carey is getting on, and there must have been silent prayers at the dinner that he would hold out for four more years if they can't come up with another pro-life Democrat of national renown.
The issue -- are Catholics supposed to vote against Kerry? -- is heated because there are bishops who are saying that kind of thing. In Denver, Archbishop Charles Chaput has been pretty outspoken, though those who have studied his famous interview with The New York Times (www.archden.org) can't reliably transcribe the bishop's thinking on the matter. There is no question he believes in defending life, even if unborn, but there is some question as to whether a vote for someone on the other side is dalliance with sin serious enough to be disqualifying at the communion rail.
But most striking is the apparent irrelevance of the Catholic sanction. A poll done by Time magazine last June is extraordinarily revealing: 76 percent of Catholics said that the church's position on abortion made no difference in their decisions about voting. The New York Times did its own poll in the summer, which did not contradict the Time poll but did advise that 71 percent of Catholics favor some restrictions on abortion.
But who does not favor some restrictions on abortion, except for the Supreme Court? The Times poll reveals that among the general public, 64 percent favor some restrictions. The difference between 71 percent and 64 percent, after appropriate refractions involving other issues, doesn't add up to a heady political number.
What the figures are saying is that the Catholic Church does not exercise effective moral discipline in the matter of abortion. This should not be entirely surprising, given the figures we have known for a long time, indicating that abortions are engaged in by Catholics at almost the same rate as by non-Catholics.
It is hard to say how the pensive Catholic squares off on the question of fidelity to religious commandments and civic independence. The Catholic vote has been traditionally Democratic. Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) broke through in 1984, winning 54 percent of the Catholic vote. But the point here is that in American politics, the Catholic vote is not to be thought of as monolithic, like the Jewish vote or the black vote. Some will think that a triumph of assimilation. Others will wonder, along with the organizers of the Al Smith Dinner, whether the loosened boundaries are absolutely welcome.
(EDITORS: If you have editorial questions, please contact Alan McDermott at amcdermott@amuniversal.com.)-->
Fri Oct 22, 8:01 PM ET
By William F. Buckley Jr.
The annual dinner in New York City in honor of Al Smith is closely watched by politicians who want to have some idea of how the Catholic vote is going. The dinner itself is advertised as an ecumenical event to raise money for health services (half the proceeds go to Jewish hospitals), but it is very much a Catholic event, organized by the Catholic archdiocese.
William F. Buckley
Special attention was given to it this year because the featured speakers were not the presidential candidates. The inside story (easily penetrated by rudimentary political analysis) was that an invitation to Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) would be embarrassing, Kerry being not only pro-choice, but committed, if elected president, not to nominate any justice to the Supreme Court who wasn't in favor of Roe v. Wade (news - web sites), which is the constitutional right to an abortion discovered in 1973. Candidate Kerry has informed the voting public that, like Martin Luther, he was an altar boy. And indeed he is running as a Catholic, and the wonderment is: How should Catholics react to this Catholic candidate, given his permissive stand on abortion?
The way the Alfred E. Smith people handled that problem was nicely Jesuitical. They did invite a president -- a former president, George H.W. Bush. And they did invite a Democratic counterpart, not quite an ex-president, but an ex-governor. And Hugh Carey is eloquently anti-abortion.
Whether the Al Smith Dinner will be able to keep this up for very long is a serious question. The current New York governor is Republican, but pro-choice. His predecessor was a Democratic Catholic -- but also pro-choice. Hugh Carey is getting on, and there must have been silent prayers at the dinner that he would hold out for four more years if they can't come up with another pro-life Democrat of national renown.
The issue -- are Catholics supposed to vote against Kerry? -- is heated because there are bishops who are saying that kind of thing. In Denver, Archbishop Charles Chaput has been pretty outspoken, though those who have studied his famous interview with The New York Times (www.archden.org) can't reliably transcribe the bishop's thinking on the matter. There is no question he believes in defending life, even if unborn, but there is some question as to whether a vote for someone on the other side is dalliance with sin serious enough to be disqualifying at the communion rail.
But most striking is the apparent irrelevance of the Catholic sanction. A poll done by Time magazine last June is extraordinarily revealing: 76 percent of Catholics said that the church's position on abortion made no difference in their decisions about voting. The New York Times did its own poll in the summer, which did not contradict the Time poll but did advise that 71 percent of Catholics favor some restrictions on abortion.
But who does not favor some restrictions on abortion, except for the Supreme Court? The Times poll reveals that among the general public, 64 percent favor some restrictions. The difference between 71 percent and 64 percent, after appropriate refractions involving other issues, doesn't add up to a heady political number.
What the figures are saying is that the Catholic Church does not exercise effective moral discipline in the matter of abortion. This should not be entirely surprising, given the figures we have known for a long time, indicating that abortions are engaged in by Catholics at almost the same rate as by non-Catholics.
It is hard to say how the pensive Catholic squares off on the question of fidelity to religious commandments and civic independence. The Catholic vote has been traditionally Democratic. Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) broke through in 1984, winning 54 percent of the Catholic vote. But the point here is that in American politics, the Catholic vote is not to be thought of as monolithic, like the Jewish vote or the black vote. Some will think that a triumph of assimilation. Others will wonder, along with the organizers of the Al Smith Dinner, whether the loosened boundaries are absolutely welcome.
(EDITORS: If you have editorial questions, please contact Alan McDermott at amcdermott@amuniversal.com.)-->
Kerry Campaign Seizes on Halliburton Probe
Email this StoryOct 29, 9:51 AM (ET)By CALVIN WOODWARD and TOM RAUM
.
WASHINGTON (AP) - After days of trying to make political hay over lost Iraqi explosives, the Democratic ticket turned Friday to an FBI probe of Halliburton as evidence of Bush administration special favors to special interests. President Bush was campaigning with actor-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"We need a president and a vice president of the United States who consistently stand up for the interests of the American people, and that's not what we're seeing right now," Democratic running mate John Edwards said on CBS Friday morning.
Edwards was even more pointed Thursday night when he told 3,000 people at a Davenport, Iowa, rally, "You cannot stand with Halliburton, big oil companies and the Saudi royal family and still stand up for the American people."
Bush turned to a pair of American heroes for affirmation of his re-election bid. Retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who oversaw the combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, saluted his old boss Thursday night. Bush also was getting the endorsement of freshly minted World Series champion pitcher Curt Schilling. The Boston Red Sox player had planned to appear Friday with Bush, but his doctors advised him not to travel because of his injured ankle, Bush aides said.
After his appearance in New Hampshire, Bush was to share the stage in Ohio with California Gov. and movie star Schwarzenegger.
The stars that counted for Bush on Thursday were those earned by a lineup of retired military officers who joined him before a crowd of more than 10,000 in suburban Cleveland. Chief among the brass was Franks, who saluted Bush and said Kerry "disrespects our troops."
"God bless you, Tommy," Bush said as he took the microphone from him.
Kerry headed for Florida, his campaign sorting through a series of unwelcome developments for the Republicans.
This late in the game, any miscue is ripe for exploitation, and the Republicans committed a few - in one instance watching former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani explain himself after seeming to blame troops in Iraq for the missing explosives.
The Bush campaign, seeing an unusual opportunity to make gains on exotic Democratic turf, said Thursday that Cheney would go to Hawaii for a rally Sunday night, a striking investment of time and travel for a state Republicans have won only twice since statehood in 1959.
The Democrats weren't standing by. Al Gore, who won the state by nearly 20 points four years ago, was on his way to campaign there and so was Kerry's daughter Alex.
"We are competitive in the state; this is a very close race," Bush spokeswoman Anne Womack said, attributing growing GOP support to fears of terrorism in the tourist haven.
Kerry's running mate quickly went on the offensive when word came out that the FBI had begun investigating whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid Iraq reconstruction contracts to Halliburton Co. (HAL), the Houston-based company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.
"At every turn for the past four years, George Bush and Dick Cheney gave out special favors and looked out for their special interest friends," Edwards said.
Democrats long have accused the Bush administration of showing favoritism to Halliburton, but had trouble making the charges stick after congressional investigators found the company got no-bid contracts in part because no other firms could do the work.
Still, the matter is far from closed. Documents obtained by The Associated Press show FBI agents sought permission this week to interview Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer who went public with allegations that her agency unfairly awarded contracts worth billions of dollars to Halliburton subsidiary KBR.
Almost everywhere that counted, polls found the race exceptionally close. Internal campaign polls found it closer still.
New battleground surveys suggested Kerry was leading in Ohio and Michigan, Bush was ahead in Florida and the two were tied in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Oregon.
Bush told USA Today he hasn't spent any time worrying that the campaign could end with no clear winner, as the 2000 race notoriously did.
"It's important that everybody vote, it's important that the elections be fair, and it's important that the election end on election night," he said in an interview published Friday.
Kerry, also speaking with USA Today on Thursday, said he believes the outcome will be known Tuesday night, "just like I believed the Red Sox would win the World Series."
Bush launched a stinging character assault on Kerry, telling thousands in Saginaw, Mich., "a president cannot blow in the wind, a president must make tough decisions and stand by them."
Bush advisers said their candidate was making gains in internal polls until Kerry's relentless attack on the disappearance of nearly 400 tons of explosives from an Iraqi weapons dump - an occurrence dating from the fall of Baghdad last year that both sides acknowledge is not fully understood.
Franks counterpunched, saying troops have destroyed 240,000 tons of Iraqi munitions, control an additional 162,000 tons and have cleared 10,000 ammunition and weapons sites. He said Kerry has no standing to label Bush as negligent on the missing cache.
In an interview Thursday with "NBC Nightly News," Kerry said that if he'd been president then, "we might have gone to war," but he would have done so in a way that ensured "the American people weren't carrying the burden and the entire world understood."
Of Saddam Hussein's fate, Kerry said: "It's absolutely impossible and irresponsible to suggest that if I were president, he wouldn't necessarily be gone. He might be gone. Because if he hadn't complied (with U.N. demands), we might have had to go to war."
---
Associated Press writer Tom Raum, traveling with Bush, reported from Westlake, Ohio; AP writer Mary Dalrymple, traveling with Kerry, also contributed to this report.
---
Email this StoryOct 29, 9:51 AM (ET)By CALVIN WOODWARD and TOM RAUM
.
WASHINGTON (AP) - After days of trying to make political hay over lost Iraqi explosives, the Democratic ticket turned Friday to an FBI probe of Halliburton as evidence of Bush administration special favors to special interests. President Bush was campaigning with actor-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"We need a president and a vice president of the United States who consistently stand up for the interests of the American people, and that's not what we're seeing right now," Democratic running mate John Edwards said on CBS Friday morning.
Edwards was even more pointed Thursday night when he told 3,000 people at a Davenport, Iowa, rally, "You cannot stand with Halliburton, big oil companies and the Saudi royal family and still stand up for the American people."
Bush turned to a pair of American heroes for affirmation of his re-election bid. Retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who oversaw the combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, saluted his old boss Thursday night. Bush also was getting the endorsement of freshly minted World Series champion pitcher Curt Schilling. The Boston Red Sox player had planned to appear Friday with Bush, but his doctors advised him not to travel because of his injured ankle, Bush aides said.
After his appearance in New Hampshire, Bush was to share the stage in Ohio with California Gov. and movie star Schwarzenegger.
The stars that counted for Bush on Thursday were those earned by a lineup of retired military officers who joined him before a crowd of more than 10,000 in suburban Cleveland. Chief among the brass was Franks, who saluted Bush and said Kerry "disrespects our troops."
"God bless you, Tommy," Bush said as he took the microphone from him.
Kerry headed for Florida, his campaign sorting through a series of unwelcome developments for the Republicans.
This late in the game, any miscue is ripe for exploitation, and the Republicans committed a few - in one instance watching former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani explain himself after seeming to blame troops in Iraq for the missing explosives.
The Bush campaign, seeing an unusual opportunity to make gains on exotic Democratic turf, said Thursday that Cheney would go to Hawaii for a rally Sunday night, a striking investment of time and travel for a state Republicans have won only twice since statehood in 1959.
The Democrats weren't standing by. Al Gore, who won the state by nearly 20 points four years ago, was on his way to campaign there and so was Kerry's daughter Alex.
"We are competitive in the state; this is a very close race," Bush spokeswoman Anne Womack said, attributing growing GOP support to fears of terrorism in the tourist haven.
Kerry's running mate quickly went on the offensive when word came out that the FBI had begun investigating whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid Iraq reconstruction contracts to Halliburton Co. (HAL), the Houston-based company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.
"At every turn for the past four years, George Bush and Dick Cheney gave out special favors and looked out for their special interest friends," Edwards said.
Democrats long have accused the Bush administration of showing favoritism to Halliburton, but had trouble making the charges stick after congressional investigators found the company got no-bid contracts in part because no other firms could do the work.
Still, the matter is far from closed. Documents obtained by The Associated Press show FBI agents sought permission this week to interview Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer who went public with allegations that her agency unfairly awarded contracts worth billions of dollars to Halliburton subsidiary KBR.
Almost everywhere that counted, polls found the race exceptionally close. Internal campaign polls found it closer still.
New battleground surveys suggested Kerry was leading in Ohio and Michigan, Bush was ahead in Florida and the two were tied in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Oregon.
Bush told USA Today he hasn't spent any time worrying that the campaign could end with no clear winner, as the 2000 race notoriously did.
"It's important that everybody vote, it's important that the elections be fair, and it's important that the election end on election night," he said in an interview published Friday.
Kerry, also speaking with USA Today on Thursday, said he believes the outcome will be known Tuesday night, "just like I believed the Red Sox would win the World Series."
Bush launched a stinging character assault on Kerry, telling thousands in Saginaw, Mich., "a president cannot blow in the wind, a president must make tough decisions and stand by them."
Bush advisers said their candidate was making gains in internal polls until Kerry's relentless attack on the disappearance of nearly 400 tons of explosives from an Iraqi weapons dump - an occurrence dating from the fall of Baghdad last year that both sides acknowledge is not fully understood.
Franks counterpunched, saying troops have destroyed 240,000 tons of Iraqi munitions, control an additional 162,000 tons and have cleared 10,000 ammunition and weapons sites. He said Kerry has no standing to label Bush as negligent on the missing cache.
In an interview Thursday with "NBC Nightly News," Kerry said that if he'd been president then, "we might have gone to war," but he would have done so in a way that ensured "the American people weren't carrying the burden and the entire world understood."
Of Saddam Hussein's fate, Kerry said: "It's absolutely impossible and irresponsible to suggest that if I were president, he wouldn't necessarily be gone. He might be gone. Because if he hadn't complied (with U.N. demands), we might have had to go to war."
---
Associated Press writer Tom Raum, traveling with Bush, reported from Westlake, Ohio; AP writer Mary Dalrymple, traveling with Kerry, also contributed to this report.
---
Bill Clinton campaigns in Las Vegas
Anjeanette Damon
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL10/29/2004 10:56 pm
Joe Cavaretta/Joe Cavaretta IN VEGAS: Former President Clinton appears at a rally on behalf of U.S. Sen. John Kerry Friday at the Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS — Standing in the same amphitheater where he delivered his own campaign’s closing argument eight years ago, former President Bill Clinton asked a cheering crowd Friday to elect U.S. Sen. John Kerry president Tuesday.
“This whole election may turn on what happens in Nevada,” he told an estimated 5,000 supporters at the Clark County Government Center Amphitheater.
Las Vegas is one of only a handful of campaign stops Clinton is making, seven weeks after undergoing open-heart surgery.
“This is part of my therapy,” he said. “You’re good for my recovery.”
As the campaign comes to a close, Clinton is among the final surrogates to visit Nevada, a presidential battleground state that has received unprecedented attention from both candidates.
Democrats said Clinton’s record of presiding over a booming economy and his political persuasion would help swing the tiny number of undecided voters left in Nevada to Kerry.
But Republicans contend Clinton was needed to prop up an ailing base of voters in Clark County — the Democratic stronghold of the state.
“Bill Clinton is the last Democrat who excited the Democratic base,” said Bush’s campaign manager Ken Mehlman in a conference call with Nevada reporters before the speech. “When people see Bill Clinton, they’ll remember well that John Kerry, you’re no Bill Clinton.”
In his 20-minute stump speech, Clinton chastised Bush for giving the wealthy a tax cut, often referring to his own tax rebate.
“We’ve had to borrow and spend to cover my tax break,” Clinton joked.
“They put a bill through called No Child Left Behind, but then George Bush wanted to give me a tax cut, and they left 2.1 million kids behind,” Clinton said.
Clinton said the record budget deficits created during the Bush administration eventually will cause “interest rates to explode.”
Clinton said he can’t wait for Kerry to repeal his tax cut, adding that the millionaires he knows – including Republicans – are embarrassed by their tax breaks.
“We are embarrassed because in the last four years we are the only group of Americans who have not been asked to make any contribution to the rebuilding of the American economy and the war on terror,” Clinton said.
Clinton also said Kerry has the better plan to keep America safe, seeking to reassure voters who might be concerned about changing presidents in the middle of a war.
Kerry, Clinton said, will increase the U.S. military by 40,000 troops, build a stronger international coalition to help secure Iraq, double the number of special forces to “intensify the hunt for terrorists” and “invest more in homeland security.”
Mehlman said Nevada voters understand Bush is the candidate to keep them safe from terrorists, who “have designs” on Las Vegas and that Bush’s tax cuts are key to keeping the state’s economy strong.
Eleven-year-old Sean Hale, of Las Vegas, who joined his mother Corey at Clinton’s rally, said he’s worried the country will “go into chaos” if Bush is reelected.
“I want Kerry to win,” he said. “If he doesn’t, our country will be in even more trouble. We’ve already lost most of our allies.”
Many in the crowd came to see their “favorite president.” But opinions were mixed on whether his campaign stop would make a difference among those who haven’t voted yet.
“I think all their decisions are already made,” said Kristen Maish-Wirth, 37, a Las Vegas banker. “You see that with the turnout at early voting. People’s minds are already made.”
Marilyn Molitch, 56, a retiree who moved to Las Vegas this year from Incline Village, disagreed.
“A lot of people have a lot of respect for Clinton,” she said. “Clinton’s not a dummy. If he didn’t like Kerry he would’ve stayed quiet and not endorsed anyone. But if he says Kerry would be good, then he could help some people decide.”
Evette Tippett, 37, a Las Vegas AmeriCorps volunteer, said Clinton reminds people of a better time.
“People want things the way they were when he was in office,” she said. “The economy was good.”
James Carville, Clinton’s chief campaign strategist in 1992, said voters see more than the past when they look at the former president.
“People see a guy with a lot of ideas,” he told reporters after Clinton’s speech. “They look at Clinton as a sign of hope.”
But he acknowledged that Clinton’s record helps.
“What did people not like? The peace or the prosperity?” he joked.
Former Democratic Texas Gov. Ann Richards plans a visit to Reno on Sunday in a campaign stop aimed at encouraging support for U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee.
Richards, who was unseated as governor by George W. Bush in 1994, is scheduled to speak at Promenade on the River, a senior center on 525 Court Street, at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
Richards is touring the country urging seniors to vote and criticizing President Bush’s policies on Iraq, education and health care, among other topics.
Organizers said Richards plans to speak to the group about “seniors’ issues that are pertinent to this presidential election.” Copyright © 2004 The Reno Gazette-Journal
Anjeanette Damon
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL10/29/2004 10:56 pm
Joe Cavaretta/Joe Cavaretta IN VEGAS: Former President Clinton appears at a rally on behalf of U.S. Sen. John Kerry Friday at the Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS — Standing in the same amphitheater where he delivered his own campaign’s closing argument eight years ago, former President Bill Clinton asked a cheering crowd Friday to elect U.S. Sen. John Kerry president Tuesday.
“This whole election may turn on what happens in Nevada,” he told an estimated 5,000 supporters at the Clark County Government Center Amphitheater.
Las Vegas is one of only a handful of campaign stops Clinton is making, seven weeks after undergoing open-heart surgery.
“This is part of my therapy,” he said. “You’re good for my recovery.”
As the campaign comes to a close, Clinton is among the final surrogates to visit Nevada, a presidential battleground state that has received unprecedented attention from both candidates.
Democrats said Clinton’s record of presiding over a booming economy and his political persuasion would help swing the tiny number of undecided voters left in Nevada to Kerry.
But Republicans contend Clinton was needed to prop up an ailing base of voters in Clark County — the Democratic stronghold of the state.
“Bill Clinton is the last Democrat who excited the Democratic base,” said Bush’s campaign manager Ken Mehlman in a conference call with Nevada reporters before the speech. “When people see Bill Clinton, they’ll remember well that John Kerry, you’re no Bill Clinton.”
In his 20-minute stump speech, Clinton chastised Bush for giving the wealthy a tax cut, often referring to his own tax rebate.
“We’ve had to borrow and spend to cover my tax break,” Clinton joked.
“They put a bill through called No Child Left Behind, but then George Bush wanted to give me a tax cut, and they left 2.1 million kids behind,” Clinton said.
Clinton said the record budget deficits created during the Bush administration eventually will cause “interest rates to explode.”
Clinton said he can’t wait for Kerry to repeal his tax cut, adding that the millionaires he knows – including Republicans – are embarrassed by their tax breaks.
“We are embarrassed because in the last four years we are the only group of Americans who have not been asked to make any contribution to the rebuilding of the American economy and the war on terror,” Clinton said.
Clinton also said Kerry has the better plan to keep America safe, seeking to reassure voters who might be concerned about changing presidents in the middle of a war.
Kerry, Clinton said, will increase the U.S. military by 40,000 troops, build a stronger international coalition to help secure Iraq, double the number of special forces to “intensify the hunt for terrorists” and “invest more in homeland security.”
Mehlman said Nevada voters understand Bush is the candidate to keep them safe from terrorists, who “have designs” on Las Vegas and that Bush’s tax cuts are key to keeping the state’s economy strong.
Eleven-year-old Sean Hale, of Las Vegas, who joined his mother Corey at Clinton’s rally, said he’s worried the country will “go into chaos” if Bush is reelected.
“I want Kerry to win,” he said. “If he doesn’t, our country will be in even more trouble. We’ve already lost most of our allies.”
Many in the crowd came to see their “favorite president.” But opinions were mixed on whether his campaign stop would make a difference among those who haven’t voted yet.
“I think all their decisions are already made,” said Kristen Maish-Wirth, 37, a Las Vegas banker. “You see that with the turnout at early voting. People’s minds are already made.”
Marilyn Molitch, 56, a retiree who moved to Las Vegas this year from Incline Village, disagreed.
“A lot of people have a lot of respect for Clinton,” she said. “Clinton’s not a dummy. If he didn’t like Kerry he would’ve stayed quiet and not endorsed anyone. But if he says Kerry would be good, then he could help some people decide.”
Evette Tippett, 37, a Las Vegas AmeriCorps volunteer, said Clinton reminds people of a better time.
“People want things the way they were when he was in office,” she said. “The economy was good.”
James Carville, Clinton’s chief campaign strategist in 1992, said voters see more than the past when they look at the former president.
“People see a guy with a lot of ideas,” he told reporters after Clinton’s speech. “They look at Clinton as a sign of hope.”
But he acknowledged that Clinton’s record helps.
“What did people not like? The peace or the prosperity?” he joked.
Former Democratic Texas Gov. Ann Richards plans a visit to Reno on Sunday in a campaign stop aimed at encouraging support for U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee.
Richards, who was unseated as governor by George W. Bush in 1994, is scheduled to speak at Promenade on the River, a senior center on 525 Court Street, at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
Richards is touring the country urging seniors to vote and criticizing President Bush’s policies on Iraq, education and health care, among other topics.
Organizers said Richards plans to speak to the group about “seniors’ issues that are pertinent to this presidential election.” Copyright © 2004 The Reno Gazette-Journal
