Newsmax >> Adviser: Bush Must Attack Critics

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/22/135733.shtml

Adviser: Bush Must Attack Critics


A close adviser to President George Bush says the administration must keep up its attacks on critics of the Iraq war.

Mark McKinnon, who was Bush’s chief media adviser during the 2004 presidential election campaign, acknowledged that this strategy is dangerous because it keeps alive debate over whether the administration manipulated intelligence in the run-up to the war.

But in a speech at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, he insisted it’s vital because Bush can’t afford damage to what McKinnon called his key appeal: "his honesty.” Said McKinnon: "Bush is perceived as honest but the Democrats have had some success in selling that the intelligence was flawed or tampered with. He’s been a little late in pushing back but he has to and is saying we all saw the same intelligence.

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He added: "Things are not going well in Iraq. We have to face reality.”

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The pundit disclosed that President Bush never reads polls and doesn’t care about newspaper headlines. McKinnon, on the other hand, tried to escape the "Beltway mentality” during the 2004 campaign by reading newspapers from 25 cities across the country.