Strike One for Edwards

[© Tweed the Younger]

Well, Edwards said a stupid thing yesterday ay Columbia University.  Read up:

Edwards' Grenades
Accuses Bush of using 9/11 for advantage
 
By Glenn Thrush
STAFF WRITER; Staff writers Ken Fireman and Dan Janison contributed to this story.

February 20, 2004


A fire-breathing John Edwards stormed into the city yesterday and accused President George W. Bush of steering the GOP convention to New York to "exploit" the city's suffering on Sept. 11, 2001, for political gain.

Edwards, speaking at Columbia University, said Bush is trying to give the impression he has stood by the city while stiffing cops and firefighters on Homeland Security funding.

"George Bush and his team, they think they're going to be able to exploit this tragedy right here at this convention for a few days," the North Carolina senator said, kicking off a five-day tour of the state in advance of the crucial March 2 Democratic primary.

"I can't believe he said that," said Kevin Madden, spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign. "They are playing politics with a national tragedy."

Edwards also used the appearance to challenge front-runner John Kerry to a debate "wherever and whenever."

Kerry spokesman Mark Kornblau said his boss was willing to debate "anywhere, anytime" but only if the two other remaining candidates, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich, aren't left out. Kerry led Edwards by more than 40 points in a statewide poll conducted a week ago, but that was before Edwards' stronger than expected showing in the Wisconsin primary.

Yesterday, Edwards tried to gain on Kerry without criticizing him directly. The former trial lawyer, standing in front of a huge American flag, delivered a savagely anti-Bush message in a honeyed yet hard-edged style honed from years of addressing Southern juries.

"I think the president is trying to take political advantage by having their convention here, and they have not shown the kind of commitment that I believe they need to show to the city," he said.

Responding to Edwards' charge, a White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, said, "The president's top priority is protecting the lives and safety of the American people. He has said that repeatedly. I'll just leave it at that."

A source close to the White House, speaking on condition of anonymity, took strong issue with Edwards' assertion that Bush had not shown sufficient commitment to the city.

"It's just a fact that President Bush, with Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton standing at his side, committed $20 billion to the city after 9/11, and the president delivered," the source said.

Kornblau agreed - to a point.

"George Bush and Karl Rove have made no secret of the fact that they intend to use the tragedy of 9/11 to make national security the centerpiece issue of the election," he said.

Edwards and Kerry "couldn't be more inaccurate," said Rori Patrice Smith, a spokeswoman for the convention's organizers. "New York offered to host the convention in 2001 because the city's civic, business and labor leaders knew it would be a good event."

Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had wanted the city to host the Democratic convention, too, but party boss Terry McAuliffe demanded "an exclusive," leaving New York to the Republicans.

"I don't think that either party, if they had their convention here, is trying is to exploit 9/11," Bloomberg said during a news conference in Washington Heights.

In his speech, Edwards focused on the divide between rich and poor in the city, ticking off negative economic indicators and citing job losses, rising bankruptcies and increased poverty rates.

"There's always going to be one New York, but there's two different ways of living in New York," the senator said. "There's one of privilege and comfort and another one filled with struggle, and they are so close together that they collide with each other every single day."

Bloomberg bridled at that, saying, "There is optimism about New York that you haven't seen in years."

Kerry will appear Monday in Harlem and Queens.

Staff writers Ken Fireman and Dan Janison contributed to this story.

----

Edwards is falling into the same hole than Dean did: never say what yuo truly want to say.  STRIKE ONE for Edwards.  I still support him...but other people may not.

[elcorazon]

What was so bad about that?

[© Tweed the Younger]

What was so bad about that?

Well, what he said is true, but he said something that Kerry and Bush could use against him.  It isn't getting the press I thought it would, which is good.

[NHPolitico]

What was so bad about that?

Well, what he said is true, but he said something that Kerry and Bush could use against him.  It isn't getting the press I thought it would, which is good.

Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean sort of made what he said seem mousy.

[© Tweed the Younger]

this story is getting no time on the najor networks, so I guess it's a non-story.

[Clay]

When is Edwards going to drop out?

It's getting a little old now, John......

"Another win for John Kerry today..."  Starting to get a little boring.  Same ol', same ol'.  Just drop out already; end the race you never had to begin with.

And the most important thing (if you're a Dem)

START WORKING ON YOUR RACE AGAINST BUSH.

The longer the primary race, the less time the Dems have to really put up a fight against Bush.  Edwards is hurting his party by staying in for so long with no big wins.

[zachman]

The fact that Edwards did nearly as well as Kerry is amazing given that Kerry had many times more positive press. He also had a solid majority of the press coverage. What Edwards did was incredible, almost as incredible as Kerry getting under 40%.

What Edwards said is not fair bait for Kerry. I saw him at the end of 2003 when he was still a longshot. He put down Dean's statements on the Iraq war,and was totally ineffective to me, as a democrat. Press, even if it is not favorable, is still good for Edwards. People like the underdog, as long as they can see him.

[dazzleman]

Edwards let his liberal philosophy slip with the use of one word -- tragedy.

Sept. 11th was not a tragedy.  It was an act of war.  Tragedy is when a tree falls on a car and kills somebody by accident.  Deliberate murder of thousands of people is not a tragedy.

This is typical of the morally neutral liberal stance toward those who attack us.

[dunn]

Edwards let his liberal philosophy slip with the use of one word -- tragedy.

Sept. 11th was not a tragedy.  It was an act of war.  Tragedy is when a tree falls on a car and kills somebody by accident.  Deliberate murder of thousands of people is not a tragedy.

This is typical of the morally neutral liberal stance toward those who attack us.

it was an act of war AND tragedy.

[dazzleman]

Well then Edwards should have acknowledged that, rather than making Bush sound like an ambulance chaser (maybe a little bit of projection going on there).

In my experience, liberals like to blur the line between perpetrator and victim, making violent acts into "tragedies" for both parties.  Or if they do seek to assign guilt, it will be based more on extraneous factors, like the race and/or gender of the parties involved.

[zachman]

Well then Edwards should have acknowledged that, rather than making Bush sound like an ambulance chaser (maybe a little bit of projection going on there).

In my experience, liberals like to blur the line between perpetrator and victim, making violent acts into "tragedies" for both parties.  Or if they do seek to assign guilt, it will be based more on extraneous factors, like the race and/or gender of the parties involved.

     Any extremist credits tradgedies on extraneous factors. Michael Moore does it. Jerry Falwell does it. Bush didn't put any real focus into terrorism before 9/11, and pretends to be a hero on the issue of terrorism.

Will Michael Moore's movie Fahreinheit 9/11, concerning how Bush has used Sept. 11 to achieve his political goals, cause a backlash for his cause, or will it enlarge the democratic base? I think it will backfire. America couldn't take Howard Dean's statement, it still believes Saddam Hussein was involved with Sept. 11. Society is not capable of determining the truth.

[© Tweed the Younger]

Edwards let his liberal philosophy slip with the use of one word -- tragedy.

Sept. 11th was not a tragedy.  It was an act of war.  Tragedy is when a tree falls on a car and kills somebody by accident.  Deliberate murder of thousands of people is not a tragedy.

This is typical of the morally neutral liberal stance toward those who attack us.

"One death is a tragedy.  One million deaths is a statistic"