bush vs reality
bush's claim: «i don't think i ever said i'm not worried about osama bin laden. i think that's one of those ex-a-gge-ra-tions.»reality: check out this video clip.
bush has said about osama bin laden that he was «truly not that concerned about him». the remark came at a 13 march 2002 press conference. cnn's kelly wallace asked, «don't you believe that the threat that bin laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?» bush's response: «well, as i say, we haven't heard much from him. ... and, again, i don't know where he is. i -- i'll repeat what I said. i truly am not that concerned about him. i know he is on the run...»
bush's claim: bush said 75 percent of known al qaeda leaders have been brought to justice.
reality: bush incorrectly stated that under his watch 75 percent of al qaeda's leadership has been brought to justice. cia officials have estimated that 75 percent of the two dozen or so known al qaeda leaders as of 11 september 2001, have been either killed or captured. the estimate does not take into account post-11 september activity, or new al qaeda leaders who have taken the place of those killed or captured. the non-partisan international institute for strategic studies estimates that al qaeda has about 18,000 potential operatives, but there is no official data on the size of al qaeda's total membership, in part because it is difficult to track the number of new recruits since the attack, invasion, occupation and continued war in iraq.
bush's claim: bush said senator kerry has proposed us$2.2 trillion in new spending.
reality: bush's number is based on an analysis by the partisan and conservative think tank, american enterprise institute. however, bush cites an outdated institute report that did not include a detailed kerry campaign budget plan released 03 August 2004. after factoring in these August proposals, the institute revised its estimate to $1.8 trillion in spending, which the kerry campaign still affirms is off-base. according to the revised institute analysis, senator kerry's largest expenditure is his health care plan, at a cost of about us$922 billion. but separate independent analyses, one by the nonpartisan concord coalition and the other by emory university professor ken thorpe, each have priced senator kerry's health care plan to be $653 billion. the concord coalition analysis finds that senator kerry's and bush's overall spending proposals each cost roughly $1.3 trillion. thorpe, the emory professor, is a former clinton administration official, but the bush campaign has cited his numbers to support various campaign claims, approving of his methodology.
via kicking ass and cnn.
