Missed an Opportunity

The initial reviews weren’t too bad, but the Times has a new story, Bush’s U.N. Speech Gets Scathing Reviews on Capitol Hill. Here are some highlights:

• Mr. Daschle, who is not running for president, continued: “He has now asked for $87 billion more. And I wish he would have made a stronger case, a better case with more specificity about a plan. He hasn’t presented a plan to the United Nations. He hasn’t presented one to this country or to this Congress. It was a missed opportunity, and that’s very disappointing.”
• “But once again he has failed to tell us exactly what role he expects the United Nations to play now and what timetable he envisions for the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people,” said Mr. Kerry, who is running for president.
• Lieberman of Connecticut, another White House hopeful, called the speech an “11th-hour, half-hearted appeal” delivered in an “I told you so” tone that makes it more difficult to secure international help in Iraq.
• Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, another presidential candidate, said that Mr. Bush had “missed an opportunity”
• Senator Bob Graham of Florida, accused Mr. Bush of taking a “my way or the highway” approach by trying to force other nations to comply with Washington’s demands…”He missed an opportunity.”

At least it’s nice to see that the faxes at the DNC headquarters are working–the Democrats appear to have a unified message: “missed an opportunity.”

Conservative pundit/editorialist Bill Saffire sagely observed that, “Hillary Clinton saying that Bush ‘missed an opportunity’ is clear evidence that she, in conjunction with the Templars, Free Masons, and The Trilateral Commission, are planning to sabotage the Democrats in 2004, thereby paving the way for Hillary Rodham’s election in 2008–unless they do it in 2004.”

AB