Post Monday, May 31st, 2004
Drudge’s link to this story says “STANDING OVATION FOR RUMSFELD IN D.C”. However, I was unable to find a reference to a standing ovation for Rumsfeld anywhere in the Reuters story by Cate Hescox. What I did find were these quotes:
Bush, who avoided combat in Vietnam while serving as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard, has fashioned himself as a war president for his re-election campaign against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran…Public concern about Iraq has pushed Bush’s job approval ratings to new lows and stirred calls for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whom the president defends…Appearing on stage with the embattled Pentagon chief, Bush lauded the character of U.S. military personnel…
So Bush “fashions” himself a war president. Newsflash to Reuters – we are at war and he is the president! I guess if Reuters was fair and balanced, then I would be able to check back in the archives and find this sentence in a story about Clinton on Memorial Day in 1996. “Clinton, who avoided combat in Vietnam by dodging the draft, has fashioned himself as a Commander-in-Chief for his re-election campaign against Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, a decorated WWII veteran who still bears the scars and is partially disabled from wounds suffered in combat.” I won’t even bother checking; it isn’t there. If they were really fair they would have described the contempt about 90 percent of those in the military had for President Clinton, which was easy to see in the difference between the reaction he got from any military crowd and the reactions Bob Dole received. Many in the media must think that if they don’t tell us about it, we won’t know it happened. That may have been true before the internet, but those days are no more.
– Lorie Byrd