Home > Mr. President you should not be our commander in chief
By Patricia Wilson
TOLEDO, Ohio (Reuters) - Democratic challenger John Kerry turned President Bush’s own words into a weapon on Thursday and said it was the Republican incumbent who had jumped to conclusions in Iraq, disqualifying him from being commander in chief.
The Massachusetts senator, energized by his beloved Boston Red Sox’s long-awaited win in baseball’s World Series and a joint appearance with rocker Bruce Springsteen, launched a withering attack on Bush over 380 tons of missing explosives in Iraq and chided his rival for invoking the memory of President John Kennedy.
Kerry said the weapons were not "where they were supposed to be, you were warned to guard them, you didn’t guard them. They’re not secure, and, guess what, according to George Bush’s own words, he shouldn’t be our commander in chief and I couldn’t agree more."
With Tuesday’s election deadlocked, Kerry took aim at the president’s perceived strength — national security — and hammered him for a fourth consecutive day on the missing explosives.
Bush on Wednesday accused Kerry of opportunism, saying: "A political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as commander in chief ... that is part of a pattern of a candidate who will say anything to get elected."
Kerry threw the words back at the president 24 hours later, announcing he was going "to apply the Bush standard" and declaring: "Mr. President, I agree with you."
"George Bush jumped to conclusions about 9/11 and Saddam Hussein," he said. "George Bush jumped to conclusions about weapons of mass destruction and he rushed to war without a plan for the peace. George Bush jumped to conclusions about how the Iraqi people would receive our troops. He not only jumped to conclusions, he ignored the facts he was given."
Almost drowned out by a thunderous wave of foot stomping from thousands of supporters packed into a University of Toledo arena, Kerry added: "I hope George Bush can hear that. That is the rumble of change coming at him."
Kerry recalled how President John Kennedy took the blame for the bungled Bay of Pigs operation in Cuba in 1961.
"Can you imagine President Kennedy ... standing up and telling the American people he couldn’t think of a single mistake that he had made? When the Bay of Pigs went sour, John Kennedy had the courage to look America in the eye and say to America ’I take responsibility, it is my fault."’
Challenging Bush, Kerry said: "Mr. President, it is long since time for you to start taking responsibility for the mistakes that you’ve made."
Wearing a Red Sox cap and reveling in the team’s World Series championship after an 86-year drought, Kerry saw a metaphor for his own White House bid.
"About a year ago, when things weren’t going so well in my campaign, somebody called a radio talk show and they said, thinking they were just cutting me right to the quick, they said ’John Kerry won’t be the president until the Red Sox win.’ Well, we’re on our way."