John Edwards vs. Tim Russert

The Sad Truth?
Making the tours of the Sunday Morning talk shows, Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards was a guest on this morning's edition of Meet The Press. At the beginning, Russert pointed out to Edwards that lately he (Edwards) had been referring to the Iraq War as a "diversion" from the more important conflict with Osama Bin Laden. Having said that, Russert reminded Edwards that in October 2002, his position was the exact opposite.

Caught in this contradiction, Edwards stumbled, stammered, and finally said, "It was the right thing to do to confront Saddam Hussein."

Russert asked Edwards, "Knowing what you know today, would you still have voted authorization for war?"

Surprisingly, Edwards said "yes." He went on to say, "Voting for the authorization was the right thing to do, but I did not vote for the mess that Bush has gotten us into."

Russert pointed out that last week, the Germans and French indicated that no matter who wins our election, they still will not send troops nor treasure to Iraq. Edwards countered with Kerry will be able to convince them to help. He stated, "Success breeds joining the coalition." Edwards says that we can "Speed up the reconstruction of Iraq."

When has government ever done anything speedily?

Conveniently forgetting Kerry's infamous vote against support for the troops, Edwards said, "It is the height of hypocrisy for this President and Vice President to criticize us for our votes."

Asked about the federal budget deficit, Edward criticized Bush's spending. He pledges to, "Get rid of corporate welfare." (Even though Kerry is a creature of the special interests.) Edwards also said, "We are going to get rid of some bureaucracies." (When has that ever happened?) We here at the Education Wonks think that anytime a Donk speaks about actually downsizing the bureaucracy is well....hilarious.