Posted on 10/01/2004 11:00:05 PM PDT by ambrose
| The Business Journal of Phoenix - October 2, 2004 http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2004/09/27/daily68.html |
The rhetoric is getting tougher and sharper in this year's presidential contest including Arizona Sen. John McCain leveling his strongest criticism yet towards Democratic presidential challenger Sen. John Kerry and Arizona state Democratic Party chairman Jim Pederson calling the interim Iraqi administration a 'puppet' government.
McCain - who has be reticent to join GOP attacks on his U.S. Senate colleague - criticized Kerry for his statements during Thursday's debate regarding Iraq and North Korea.
McCain, speaking at campaign rally with President George W. Bush in New Hampshire, said Kerry's calls for new bilateral talks with North Korea regarding its development nuclear weapons is a rehash of failed Clinton-era efforts. The Arizona Republican favors the multi-lateral approach to North Korea being taken Bush.
"We will not go back to a failed Clinton policy of bilateral negotiations with the North Koreans," McCain said Friday.
McCain also questioned Kerry's calls for a summit with other countries to help map out reconstruction efforts in Iraq and how useful such a meeting might be. McCain said its leadership and commitment from the White House that will help the situation in Iraq.
"Summits are not plans for victory," McCain said. "This President has a plan for victory."
The Arizona senator lost a bitter 2000 GOP primary contest with Bush differs with the administration on some key domestic issues. However, McCain (who could possibly make another run for the White House in 2008) has become a key backer of Bush's reelection efforts.
On Thursday night, McCain was a top GOP surrogate at the debate in Miami and lauds Bush's handling of the war on terror.
Pederson (a Valley real estate developer, a top Democratic fund raiser and likely 2006 U.S. Senate candidate) issued some equally strong statements related to Bush's handling of the economy and Iraq.
Pederson said Friday Bush has no exit strategy for Iraq, has failed to boost infrastructure there and the interim government is a "puppet" regime that lacks popular support. Pederson also cited mounting U.S. and Iraqi casualties in his attack on the Bush record.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans was also in Phoenix on Friday and said Kerry's trade and tax policies would be put a halt on economic growth and lead to economic isolationism that would hurt U.S. exporters.
Kerry wants to roll back tax cuts for the wealthy and alter free trade and tax policies to curtail foreign outsourcing. Evans said a large part of the higher-end tax cuts benefit small businesses and that the U.S. needs more and not less free trade to open up new markets. He said Kerry's advocating is economic protectionism.
The Kerry campaign disputes the GOP assertion that high-end tax cut rollbacks will hurt a large number of small businesses.
Pederson and Kerry Arizona campaign manager Doug Wilson counter that the middle class is struggling and suffering under Bush citing rising health care costs and mixed job numbers.
"The jobs that are being created in Arizona are not high-paying jobs," said Wilson.
The Bush campaign disputes that saying the majority of new jobs in the state over the last year pay higher than the average national wage.
Current polls show Bush leading nationally and in Arizona by 11 to 15 points. Pederson and Wilson point to polls in 2000 that showed Al Gore leading in Arizona and nationally. Bush ended up winning the state as well as the White House.
Pederson and Wilson were both confident that Kerry's performance in the debate will help re-energize his efforts nationally in the Southwest (including Arizona).
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Look's like your folks wish in Arizona to get rid of McCain will come true....
It appears he's making a run for a cabinet position within the second Bush term.....
Your loss is our pain....
NeverGore :^)
McCain might make a good Secretary of Transportation. Mineta should be tried for treason for the job he has done so far.
McCain hits Kerry? Hell has frozen over. The Steelers have again won a Super Bowl.
Democrats energized? The only thing in the article is two party operatives saying they are confident that they would be. The authors (or editors) making that a subtitle to the headline is ridiculous.
Not so fast! The Steelers have to get past the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs! A team I am a rabid fan of!! :D
"Dems energized," sort of like giving a lizard an enema?
Ping
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