Well. Senator McCain, who some are calling Senator mccrazy. Senator mccayn is uh is back. He's sucking up to the drive by media and taking cheap shots at President Bush. He was in Ohio yesterday campaigning four and with Senator Mike DeWine said this at a news conference. I think one of theest mistakes we made was underestimating the size of the task and the sacrifice that would be required. Stuff happens, mission accomplished, last throws a few dead enders.
I'm as more familiar with those statements than anyone else because it greaves me so much that we have not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be. I'm gonna go back. I have a quote here from President Bush on April of two thousand three, right, may I read that quote to you. Iraq can be an example of peace and prosperity and freedom to the entire Middle East. It will be a hard journey, but at every step of the way, Iraq will have a
steady friend and the American people. I'm not I I am not aware of the President. I'm well, I'm not aware of myself. Ever thinking this was going to be a cake walk. Uh, And I'm not aware of the administration making the case. I think that mission accomplished. Banner on board the aircraft carrier. Uh. You know, some could say that was misleading. Uh, but the mission at that time was accomplished. That was getting rid of Saddam. The war in Iraq actually was quite successful and didn't take
very long. It is the aftermath, the quest for peace, so to speak. Uh, that is taking a long time. I don't think the President misled anybody about it. Anyway. Here is what McCain wanted. He wanted coverage on all the evening news at cable channels, drive by media adulation, McCaine, McCain, McCain, McCain, and he got it. Here's a montage. Senator McCain says that the administration misled the public about the war, led the public to think it would be a day at
the beach. War of words. Senator John McCain comes out swinging, accusing the President of misleading the American people, making them think it would be some kind of day at the beach. Tough talk. McCain ripped into the administration for painting too rosie a picture and trying to lead the American people into believing the war was some kind of day at the beach. President Bush faces tough criticism, and this comes
from McKay supporter Republican Senator John McCain. McCain blamed the Bush administration for leading the American people to believe the war in Iraq would be a day at the beach. Senator John McCain is turning up the volume on his criticism of the war in Iraq. McCain blasted top Bush officials for painting to Rosie a picture in the war tough talk. One very prominent member of the GOP. Strong words from John McCain. John McCain has not simply been
a cheerleader. He has told people a lot more the truth. Senator John McCain hit the administration hard. Could it be a revival of the straight Talk Express that was? That was our old friend Claire Shipment at ABC panting away? Are we going to get this dratark Express back? This is why Senator McCain is going to have trouble in the Republican primaries. He is appealing to the the base instincts of the drive by media. The Republican primary voters
have no love for the drive by media. Anybody pandering to the drive by media is not somebody the Republican base is going to be excited about. Then you add to that the fact that McCain, in pandering to the drive by media, had to go out and tack the administration on an area in which the administration shows its strongest suit. The American people are behind well, that the Republican base was to stick with them, very much behind
the president in this whole effort. In fact, USA Today had this poll out yesterday to confirms something that I've been thinking about for the longest time. Pole has his approval rating back up to and the excuse according to the poll, the reason that the approval numbers up is is that, Uh, the American people loved the response to
recent acts and tempted acts of terrorism. Illustrating one of my theories that over the course of these recent months, where his approval numbers have been in the mid to high thirties, Uh, it's not because people disapprove per se of the way Bush is doing this or doing that.
It's because they wish people would Republicans anyway, the Pole wish you would do more Project US power go in and kick butt and show the world what we're capable of and end this thing with a stunning victory and with a pole shooting up to overt two p in USA today, I think that view tends to be validated now in all fairness, uh and I want to mention this to you in in in conjunction with Senator McCain's pandering to the drive by media and criticizing this administration
for its words about the war in Iraq, ABC last night had a very rare positive report on ABC's World News Tonight. Charles Gibson reported encouraging news from Baghdad. The decision was made to redeploy thousands of US troops from the Baghdad area from other areas of rock to secure the city and reduce a number of daily attacks. Well, the numbers are preliminary, but it seems to be working. After two weeks I Rocky authorities say that the number
of vital attacks has gone down by thirty percent. ABC reporters said by saturating some of the most dangerous neighborhoods, they have reduced violence across Baghdad by almost a third. US figures calculated differently show it drop either way. The Americans are fired up. And my quote Lieutenant Patrick Patterson of the cavalry, who says, yeah, it's been great. We've got a lot of smiles, We've got a lot of waves. Still, despite the positive tone, ABC is McArthur concluded, hope has
often gone sour in the rock. If they can't make their own peace, America's success in Baghdad could quickly be reversed. Well, that's the new, not new, that's the formulaic balance that the media has to put an egg or again. All kinds of great news, but but just so we're fair, it could all go to hell in a handbasket in the next five minutes. So on the day, Senator McCain goes out and uh and is critical in order to get this this loving slavish attention from the drive by media,
the news out of a rock pretty good. That's almost the same kind of thing. It happens with Democrats opening a door right into their noses and so forth. Uh. And this, as I say, was reported on ABC's World News Tonight last night. Amy Louisville Open Line Friday on Wednesday, Hello, Hi Rush negative is from another rush baby. Thank you, um and I just had a comment quick comment Singer
McCain what he said. I'm a military wife and my husband went over to Iraq as soon as the war and as Sissadam fell, and um, I all fail this, lad at all. He told me. My husband told me before he went over there that this would be the hard part. Um, not the actual itself, but the stabilization. And um, I personally have not heard any President Bush say anything, but it's going to be a tough road. Well, you know, look, the lid just something trying to make a big case out of this, uh bush lode. You
know that the theme is bush lode. So when you have the banner that says mission accomplished, Bush, Lad, when Cheney says the insurgency is in its last throws Cheney laud um what what? What's uh? You know what? What's continued troubling about this? He is Senator McCain's pandering to the drive by media at the expense of his own party, uh and his own president. On the one hand, he's very supportive of the president, very supportive of the war.
On the other hand, he thinks Rumsfeld because that fits and dovetails right with where the drive by media is on Rumsfeld to come out and say that the American people were misled on this. Why don't you tell us this at the beginning, senator, Why don't you go when the President said what he said or said what you thought he said, or when when when Cheney said what he said? Why didn't you stop what you were doing, stand up and say, wait a minute, I don't think
this is right. American people need to be told something else. Why didn't you come in after the fact with armchair quarterbacking in hindsight like anybody can do. But we played for you the montage there, folks, all the coverage McCain got, and that's what he was angling for. And if he thinks, if he thinks that this is going to help him with the Republican base, I'm he's sadly, sadly mistaken. Marty in Washington, your next. Nice to have you on the program.
Thanks for us pleasure. Listen, everything you're saying about McCain is right. He was a complete jerk and an idiot for saying what he did when he did. But you know now that the elephants on the table. I have felt this way for a long time. I mean since I saw those buildings, you know, five years ago, go
down on the TV set, is it? I did not understand why in the ensuing days and in the past five years, the president hasn't beat the living daylights out of this to tell people this is gonna be hard. It just hasn't come across and and and I don't know if the fault his I think it is to a great degree or certainly, as you point out, the media's traditional media has got its own template on this thing. But I mean, this is why Democrats are so much
smarter than Republicans. Their pr thing. They always prepare you for the worst. This is going to have to be a horrible sacrifice. And if if Butch had done that when he had the political capital of five years in the last five years and just hammered, hammered that home over and over again, and how desperately we need for our security to have a democracy in Iraq, he I don't think he'd be having the poll numbers that that
he does. And again, you know, McCain was an idiot for doing it, But he's just saying something that every probably everybody in the Republican Party knows. Well, uh yeah, I think my memory is that when it comes to the entire war on Terror, which I've always considered a rock to be part of. I think the President has gone out of the way to talk about how long this is going to take, that it's going to go
on longer than his administration. Now, if you separate the two and think I Rock is different, which is what what many of the President's opponents do, and say it's just an isolated little campaign over there that has no relationship to the war on terror. Uh, then you could say, you know, the president has come out and specifically said he has a couple of times. I gave you one quote from two thousand three, but he said it's going to be hard. It's not that he hasn't said it.
Your point is he hasn't set it enough. Um Um, you know it's it's arguable you talk about the Democrats having great pr by telling people how rotten things are going to be. I don't know that that's great pr. I don't think it's uh, you know, a great way to boost morale of the fighting forces that are over there. At the same time, he's been great as far as boosting the morale of the troops. And maybe that's because
he's too good of the commander in chief. But on the other hand, the downside of that is, you know, darn well when it drags on, then the public back at home, the upbeat messages just starting in sync with what's going on, and I just you know, it's it's it's it's a problem. He's too principal of a man to engage in these democratic pr things that they always seem to win. And now we're paying the price. We're gonna pay the price. Um, well, are they winning on
what basis? Are you saying they're winning pulling data? Well, I'm just just pulling data that. Yeah, I'm wait till November to see if they're winning. I reject that. I don't think they're winnings. I think that is part of the mindset that many conservatives had that for forty years, the Democrats always seem to be Outsmartinus, they always seem to be a couple of steps ahead of us. There pr always seemed to be brilliant and coordinated and organized.
I think they're not winning elections these days. There and there, there there. That party is falling apart, whether anybody wants to admit it or not. The Democrat Party is falling apart. The idea that the Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry and Jack Mirtha represent a brilliant pr campaign and team. I just I reject that, and I don't fall prey
to that. The one thing I do want to talk about though, before you go, and that is you wish the President had come out more often and uh and more forcefully reminding the American people is a worthy cause. And here's what we're doing. This is why it's gonna take a long time. We can't level a country because we're trying to establish a beacon of democracy there. We need to show the Iraqi people that we have nothing
against them. We're not gonna blow up their buildings, are not gonna blow up their schools, We're not gonna level the country. Um. And and thus it's gonna take a long time. We're battling a number of surgencies and so forth terrorist actions. Uh, and it's a new kind of warfare. I would love for that to have happened as well. But more than that, I would have loved a really true American projection of power. Had there been a true American projection of power, had there really been shock and all.
I think the American people would have a little bit more understanding or patients for this, and apparently the polls say that they have. I'm glad you called Marty. Thanks much