The AP wire tries to equate Bush lies with Kerry's "tortured" syntax

THE AP takes a stand for truth "Few of their assertions are patently wrong; most reside in the murky gray area between correct and incorrect — a rhetorical margin of error."

I guess the AP is not allowed to note that Kerry's "gray" is near white, while Bush's "grey" is dark with red streaks.


http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/03/17/ap_analysis_truth_first_campaign_victim/

Analysis: Truth first campaign victim
By Ron Fournier, AP Political Writer, 3/17/2004

WASHINGTON -- <snip>Kerry claims foreign leaders have urged him to beat the Republican incumbent. Bush says Kerry wants to raise taxes by $900 billion. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says he never called Iraq an immediate threat. And Secretary of State Colin Powell says he's above politics.<snip>


Top campaign advisers privately acknowledged that Kerry made a mistake by appearing to side with other nations over his own -- and using a curious sources-tell-me construction that might be becoming a habit. He has quoted "friends in the British government" and sources "on the highest authority" to support other foreign policy assertions.<snip>


That's a bold statement from a president who went to war assuring Americans that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, using flawed intelligence to support his case. CIA director George Tenet recently told Congress that analysts "never said there was an imminent threat."<snip>


The figure (raise taxes by $900 billion) is wrong in the sense that Kerry has never proposed that large a tax increase. But the president was only taking advantage of a multibillion dollar hole in Kerry's health care plan: It costs as much as $900 billion, but Kerry has not explained how he would pay for it.<snip>

Kerry, who supported Bush's war resolution then campaigned against it, said he voted against the spending bill because he did not support the president's military and reconstruction plans. His tortured explanation illustrates why Bush believes he can cast Kerry as a flip-flopper<snip>

Somehow the AP can't find the raise tax to pay for war $87 billion bill that Kerry voted for......sigh


But Jill Lawrence of USA Today also jumps on the "both stretch the truth" cover for Bush lies.... http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-03-17-credibility-usat_x.htm

While others claim AWOL Bush wants to fight a machismo contest based on 'authenticity,' 'decisiveness' and 'toughness.'" http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-macho18mar18,1,6394999.story?coll=la-home-headlines