Balancing Act
Reported by Eleanor - September 7, 2004 -
Special Report with Brit Hume (Sept. 7, 6:00 p.m.) balanced a portion of this report with a little political "tit for tat."
We heard about the two new groups with ads against Kerry and Bush. The new group Viet Nam vets for truth are focused on Kerry's 1971 speech about atrocities, and the Texans for truth are going after Bush as AWOL, "which the president denies, but has difficulty proving because there are gaps in the paperwork."
On the deficit numbers of $422 billion, there is "deep disagreement" on what the figures mean, since they are $55 billion less than predicted in March. Kerry is spending more. The president will make the tax cuts permanent. Kerry says Bush is the first president since the depression to have lost jobs during his term. The president inherited a bad economic situation.
Susan Estrich said that the Kerry campaign has hired John Sasso as a "candidate manager" and Mike Whouley as a "campaign organizer." Nobody has lost a job or authority.
Al Gore said the campaign is tipping to Kerry. Bush is a very weak man, a bully and a coward. His fundamentalist faith is the same as fundamentalists in other religions. Also, the Navy is investigating Kerry's full military file. It is the end of Kerry's candidacy if it finds evidence of deliberate distortion.
Comment: Balance here is in the eye of the beholder.
