Click Here For The Times Nails Kerry's Anti-Bush Exaggerations

The Times Nails Kerry's Anti-Bush Exaggerations -- October 19, 2004 -- TimesWatch.org: "Rosenbaum and Halbfinger point out: 'After weeks of facing attacks that his campaign and outside commentators called distortions, Senator John Kerry has begun criticizing President Bush on Social Security and the draft in a manner that reaches far beyond Mr. Bush's positions. Mr. Kerry may also have exaggerated the president's responsibility for the shortage of flu vaccine.... The truth is that Mr. Bush has promised not to cut the Social Security benefits of current retirees or those nearing retirement age. He said flatly in the debate on Wednesday that he had no plans to reinstate military conscription. And as for the vaccine shortage, experts say Congress is as much to blame as the president for allowing domestic manufacturers to stop production. In his years in the Senate, Mr. Kerry apparently never addressed the matter, either....the chances are extremely remote that Congress would approve a general draft. On Friday, Mike McCurry, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, suggested that Mr. Kerry was 'not alleging that there's a secret plan or anything like that' 'for the draft but simply mentioning a possibility in answer to a question from the paper. Even so, a group that supports Mr. Kerry, Win Back Respect, said its advertising in swing states raised prospects restarting the draft.'"