Yes, it is unscientific...BUT today CNN's "Quick Vote"
question was "Is it appropriate for President Bush's
campaign to use images of the September 11 terrorist
attacks in campaign ads?" Over 250,000 votes had been
tallied by the time I clicked on it (about one hour
ago). Sixty-three percent of the respondents said
"NO," thirty-seven percent said "Yes." I just logged
on to check it again...It is gone...But do not
despair, it is the true feeling in America..."How
long?," MLK Jr. asked rhetorically. "Not long," he
said. "How far? Not far," he promised. "The arc of the
moral universe is long but it bends towards justice."
Mark Egan, Reuters: "Families are enraged," said Bill
Doyle, 57, of New York, who is active in several Sept.
11 family groups. "What I think is distasteful is that
the president is trying to use 9/11 as a springboard
for his re-election. It's entirely wrong. He's had
3,500 deaths on his watch, including Iraq," said
Doyle, whose 25-year-old son Joseph died at the trade
center.
Repudiate the 9/11 Cover-Up and the Iraq War Lies,
Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/389168|top|03-04-2004::14:11|reuters.html
Sept. 11 Families Disgusted by Bush Campaign Ads
Mar 4, 1:58 PM (ET)
By Mark Egan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Families who lost relatives in
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks voiced outrage on Thursday
at President Bush's first ads of his re-election
campaign that use images of the devastated World Trade
Center to portray him as the right leader for
tumultuous times.
"Families are enraged," said Bill Doyle, 57, of New
York, who is active in several Sept. 11 family groups.
"What I think is distasteful is that the president is
trying to use 9/11 as a springboard for his
re-election. It's entirely wrong. He's had 3,500
deaths on his watch, including Iraq," said Doyle,
whose 25-year-old son Joseph died at the trade center.
Long time Bush adviser Karen Hughes defended the four
commercials -- which began running on Thursday in at
least 16 important battleground states -- as
"tastefully done."
"September 11 is not some distant event in the past,"
Hughes told ABC's "Good Morning America."
"It's a defining event for our future and important
that we learn the lessons of that day. All of us feel
deeply that tragedy but it's also important to
recognize the impact it had on our national public
policy," she said.
Two ads refer to the hijacked airliner attacks as the
Bush campaign seeks to present him as a leader who
rose to the challenge. One ad shows World Trade Center
ruins behind an American flag. Another shows
firefighters removing the flag-draped remains of a
victim.
Ron Willett of Walnut Shade, Missouri, said he was
disgusted when he saw the ads. Willett, who lost his
29-year-old son, John Charles, when planes hit the
trade center, said he is now so upset, "I would vote
for Saddam Hussein before I would vote for Bush."
"I think it is an atrocity," his wife, Lucy, added.
"He should not be allowed to use those images at all."
STAY AWAY FROM GROUND ZERO
With Republicans holding their political convention in
New York in late August, victims said they hope Bush
does not make it worse by speaking at the site now
known as Ground Zero, which many view as sacred.
"If he does, there will be a protest and it could get
ugly," said Doyle.
Several family members said their annoyance at Bush's
using the emotional images stems in part from his
refusal to testify in open session before the federal
commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"There is really a hypocrisy here. The Bush
administration will not cooperate fully with the 9/11
commission and at the same time they are trying to
invoke and own 9/11 and use it for his re-election,"
said Stephen Push from the Washington office of
"Families September 11th." His wife died on the plane
that crashed into the Pentagon that day.
The International Association of Fire Fighters, which
endorsed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry,
also denounced the campaign spots as "hypocrisy at its
worst."
"I'm disappointed but not surprised that the president
would try to trade on the heroism of those fire
fighters," the union's general president, Harold
Schaitberger, said.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had not yet
seen the ads but had no objections.
"I haven't a problem in reminding people in the
country and the world of the sacrifices that the New
York City fire department and police department and
civilians made," Bloomberg said.
And not all relatives of victims were upset by the
ads.
"I don't have a problem with his pointing to his
leadership at that time. He helped us weather it. To
me it was a tasteful ad," said Patricia Reilly, who
sister Lorraine Lee died in the New York attacks.
(additional reporting by Larry Fine)