Jennings grills Kerry

[pasadenaboy]

Reads letter from student, saying why would he bother to go to the polls if his choice was between two people who supported the IRW, the no child left behind act, the patriot act, and are opposed to gay marriage, why would you bother showing up and voting for two people who believe the same thing.

I'm not a Kerry supporter, but I know there is a ton of difference between Kerry and Bush. However, it must be dismaying how much Kerry supported Bush on these key issues.

Any comments?

[cavebat2000]

1. yeah

thats why i support Dean. THank you for making it obvious

[molly]

2. Your point is well taken and exact - there is a ton of difference

between Kerry and Bush - care to detail?

[mikehiggins]

50. Kerry is taller and smarter and more experienced than Bush ever

would or could be, even if he started right now and tried his very, very best for the rest of his entire life.

However...

Kerry is simply too much of the Beltway insider to effectively undo what the Invisible Airman has wrought, even if he beats Dubyas ass in November. JK has been in Washington for thirty years and rich as you could want all along. He may feel the pain of the working man, but he doesn't experience it.

And yes, I am for Clark, but I am ABB first, last and always. It wouldn't bother me in the least to have a tired old warhorse in the White House if I could be sure he wouldn't just mean a return of the same old, same old that put us here in the first place.

If Kerry is the nominee I will work for him like I would for Clark (though I would be ticked off over the $85 I just spent for Clark shirts). I just don't think he's the best man available.

But, whoever the voters pick, I'm behind him.

[PatrickS]

3. Good letter

What's the point of voting for Bush-lite?

[BobbyJay]

This is such a stupid argument. Dean was NEVER in a position to vote

on ANY of these issues.


Jennings is Canadian.

[PatrickS]

6. "Jennings is Canadian"

And what does this point have to do with anything?

[pasadenaboy]

10. you ever see the cramps live?

[PatrickS]

14. Unfortunately, no!

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pasadenaboy]

19. I've seen them 5 or 6 times

it is literally a life changing experience. They usually play LA and SF around halloween each year. If you get a chance, make the trip. you won't regret it.

[ermoore]

56. Actually,

Jennings is a US citizen now. He has dual-citizenship.

[IndianaGreen]

32. Jennings is not Canadian. He became a naturalized American citizen

last year.

[arewethereyet]

4. students don't vote in droves

mostly because they are this foolish. Beer and sex are far more interesting to them.

[pasadenaboy]

7. Actually, I'm more interested in beer and sex, too.

[arewethereyet]

41. thats what ehe other 364 days and 20 hours are for

four hours is all I ask.

[robsul82]

12. Ahhh, insulting younger voters. Nice electoral strategy.

Also a VERY mature response to a VERY pressing question.

Later.

RJS

[arewethereyet]

21. I fought to get kids that right and its been squandered ever since

if a voter is so shallow that they can't see the differences I'd rather they didn't vote.

[mitchum]

22. Yes!!!

[calimary]

55. Me too.

But the girl's letter does point out some pretty serious sticking points about Kerry's voting record. They certainly resonate with me. If Kerry winds up being our guy, fine. I'll support him, and work for his victory. But it won't quiet the questions that will STILL be in my mind.

[Guaranteed]

5. Jennings must have been reading my posts over the past

24 hours.

The Kerry bashing begins. ENJOY!!

[XanaDUer]

13. "The Kerry bashing begins. "

Begins? It has been going on for a long time, as has the "bashing" of every other candidate here except CMB.

:eyes:

[Guaranteed]

18. No it hasn't.

Only on DU has the Kerry bashing been going on. The national media has been nice as hell to Kerry.

[mitchum]

23. BULLSHIT...

and you know it

Oops, maybe I was a bit hasty- it seems that your bullshit detector does need tuning up.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Guaranteed]

30. Your boys going down, Mitch. Nothing you or I or anybody can do

about that now. Your boy's going down.

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[IndianaGreen]

35. Less than 25% of all Iowa Democrats went to the caucus

which means that Kerry won the caucus with 9.5% of the votes of all Iowa Democrats. Not quite as impressive a win as it appeared last night. As a matter of fact, considering the amount of time and money that all the candidates wasted on this small and largely rural state, I think it was a major failure to get such a turnout in the caucus. Worse yet is to find out that it was a record turnout. Why did anyone bother with Iowa?

[mitchum]

38. So that means the Dean juggernaut only got...?

You Have The Power (sorta)!

[IndianaGreen]

45. It means that Iowa is not what it was crap up to be!

Another small state trying to impress others with its inflated self-importance.

[mitchum]

57. Man, do you really want to bring the whole "small state" thing...

into the discussion?
How much acumen does it take to govern a small state? Considering your curious notions about small states and "inflated self-importance", I'm...hell...speechless.

[XanaDUer]

27. So what?

They were asking Kerry the same questions before Iowa. Everytime he was on TV, he was asked the same questions about Iraq, the Patriot Act.

Let them ask him and scrutinize him all they want. HIS records are open.

It is politics, after all.

[newsguyatl]

8. excellent!

i'm sorry i missed this...



god, i love that jennings... one of the very few journalists left.

[CalProf]

43. You should read The Tipping Point

by Malcolm Gladwell.

He cites a study in which they compare the Big Three, Rather, Brokaw, and Jennings, and then note the percentage of their viewers who vote for GOP presidential candidates or Dem candidates. Brokaw and Rather end up 50-50. Jennings is overwhelmingly GOP. And yet their viewers all self identify as spread evenly across the spectrum.

Journalist my ass. He's a GOP whore.

[Virgil]

9. Brothers in Skull and Bones

Both Bu$h and Kerry were in the Skull and Bones at Yale- http://www.bilderberg.org/skulbone.htm

[cindyw]

15. Snore

n/t

[Guaranteed]

16. Some great comments in this thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=149225#149292

This whole line was, of course, predicted. I don't see how Kerry expects to be able to dodge this. He's basically dodging it now by saying that his vote was RIGHT.

Uh oh...last time I said that Kerry was proud of his vote, I got flamed.

[mb7588a]

17. Kerry made it clear

that Bush and the R's haven't kept their funding promises on NCLB.
Haven't done well with the war, in fact, Bush has managed to "fuck it up."
Pro-Gay Marriage is not a popular stance. If I'm not mistaken, he believed it wasn't the government's business to tell people either way. This is one of the few things I fault Kerry for.

[Voltaire99]

20. Danger, Will Robinson, danger!

Unfortunately, that is not the kind of record that will a) win this election or b) stand the party well in the eyes of the progressives it so desperately needs to win back. It's a recipe for greater defection and four more years of Dubya.

Now, I don't think Kerry's a bad pol; nor, based on his record, an especially good one, either. He typifies a kind of right-leaning centrist for whom much -- too much -- is fungible. After all that compromise, Kerry seems so reduced in stature that he is in search of an identity to call his own.

[Guaranteed]

25. But having no identity is what

wins him votes!! He's "well nuanced," and "wise." A true wise man never takes a solid position on anything, you know.

[XanaDUer]

28. "A true wise man never takes a solid position on anything, you know."

Yup-the Dean strategy in a nutshell.

First Democrat to recommend unilateral invasion of Iraq if Hussein does not disarm and the UN does not back its own resolutions.

Dean made these statement even before the resolution was signed.


Flip, flop.

[Guaranteed]

31. Kerry says his vote was right.

What do YOU think?

[Nicholas_J]

36. Yup

Dean was the first Democrat to state that the United States should take the same action that Bush took in March. Only Dean recommended it on September 29, 2002, a week before the resolution was signed in October. Dean also praises the Congressional Democrats for trying to force Bush to go to the U.N. before doing anything...

Here is Deans support for what ended up being the Bush Doctrine, months before the attack in Iraq:


FTN - 09/29/02
WASHINGTON

DEAN: Sure, I think the Democrats have pushed him into that position and the Congress, and I think that's a good thing. And I think he is trying to do that. We still get these bellicose statements.

Look, it's very simple. Here's what we ought to have done. We should have gone to the U.N. Security Council. We should have asked for a resolution to allow the inspectors back in with no pre-conditions. And then we should have given them a deadline saying "If you don't do this, say, within 60 days, we will reserve our right as Americans to defend ourselves and we will go into Iraq."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/30/ftn/printable523726.shtml





Iowa Democrats are pretty much like Democrts everywhere. 75 percent of them are against the war with Iraq, yet 80 percent of them voted for candidates other than Dean. The supposed "only candidaate who opposed the war from the beginning"

This indicates that the most Democrats do not beleive that the Democrats in Congress supproted war with Iraq by signing the document.
And that 80 percent of the Democrats do not beleive that Dean is the candidate who oppsed the war from the start.

Kerry has been grilled on this for months, by everyone from Jay Leno to Imus.

And it is now obvious that more average democrats beleive Kerry and Edwards and do not beleive Dean.

[paulk]

44. Kerry is a right leaning centrist?

If your purpose is only to smear John Kerry then you must come up with something better than this. Political observers who know Sen. Kerry's history will only laugh at you.

Sen. Kerry's liberal, progressive voting record is a matter of public record.

[George_Bonanza]

53. I'm with you Paulk

Kerry a right-leaning centrist? Kerry won't run for the Socialist Party, but he's clearly not a right-winger.

[Leilani]

29. It wasn't a great interview

because it was by remote, & they were talking over each other.
Jennings wasn't all that polite, either. Kerry was giving really long answers & Jennings kept interrupting him.

[Cocoa]

33. no one's buying Jennings's line

they've been pushing it from the beginning, especially Tweety, that the IWR vote was a vote for the war, and I saw through it from the beginning.

Kerry refuted it excellently against Jennings, and he's backed up by Iowa.

:toast:

[Bushknew]

34. If Kerry gets the nomination, he will

depress the Democratic vote, not energize it.

The questions posed to him tonight on ABC will dog him.

When Kerry realized this was going to be a real interview, he started going on and on while
Peter was trying to ask another question.

[George_Bonanza]

39. Kerry was right: The article WAS simplistic

Kerry has stated his support for civil unions, which is as far as anybody else is willing to go in this race except for Sharpton and Kucinich. Instead of lauding his brave effort to not promote the outlawing of homosexuality in stone, people want to criticize him?

As for the Patriot Act, it was a rushed job. Please people, the great Paul Wellstone also voted for it, which just shows what a bad litmus test it is. Kerry has said he will repeal the excessive parts of the Patriot Act again and again.

As for IWR, I do not wish to engage in that circular debate.

[creativelcro]

40. Sorry, I'm from MA, know many people who know Kerry personally.

He has no convictions. Total political opportunist, as far as I know. Very different from Kennedy.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

48. So an anonymous poster says someone they know knows Kerry

and insults him. And this is supposed to influence us in what way?

[George_Bonanza]

52. Please back up that dire accusation

[arewethereyet]

42. I'm still trying to see how GRILL and JENNINGS can be in a sentence

at the same time. He's about as "tough" as Katie Couric.

[Jerseycoa]

46. I read through this thread

And I am happy to see we're all recovered and things are back to normal. ;)

Good Night.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

47. Your post is bullshit.

You provide no link, paraphrase some question you claim was asked of Kerry, do not provide the answer he gave, and ask us for comments.

My comment is: I don't think you want Kerry to be President.

[Loren645]

49. Sure there's a ton of difference. Wouldn't know if from Kerry's two votes.

And I was surprised at how weak Kerry's response was.
I'd think he'd be adept at fielding those very questions
by now, but he isn't. He just rambled about how there
are good and bad things in the Patriot Act.

I wonder if he read the Patriot Act before he voted for it.

Seems like he should have addressed the "bad things" before voting.
Made sure that he wasn't voting for a bill with "bad things" in it.
Why did he vote for that bill?

He never explained. Just sort of dissembled.

[isbister]

51. ...not a Kerry supporter...

I didn't see it. Kerry and bush don't believe the same thing and its wrong to suggest that they do. bush only believes what he is told to believe.

Reads letter from student, saying why would he bother to go to the polls if his choice was between two people who supported the IRW

I don't believe bush (and the gang) did support the IWR, they just wanted to build up and attack. I believe Congress forced the IWR to reign them in.

the no child left behind act

Its not good to leave children behind.

The biggest difference between Kerry and bush here would be the funding, Kerry for, bush against. Kerry has also been outspoken about filling the gaps No Child Left Behind has.

I'm sure our man Ted Kennedy will be extremely helpful in getting those fixes and funding done when Kerry's in office. bush burned him pretty bad on that thing and Kennedy is pretty burned up about it. They will make the necessary corrections and fund it.

Any Democrat will work to make our school systems better.

the patriot act

There were much needed reforms in the Patriot Act. There were also loopholes that bush and Ashcroft have taken advantage of. Kerry has promised to close those loopholes.

No Democrat wants the police state Ashcroft dreams of and it is wrong to suggest otherwise. I believe Kerry will appoint an AG unlike any we've seen (at least one unlike we've seen for a while).

and are opposed to gay marriage

Kerry's for civil unions, whether the people are gay or not.

bush made his statement tonight in the State of the Union.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

54. kick

:kick:


:D

[creativelcro]

58. Kerry is toast...