Sunday, September 07, 2003

Your annotated Meet the Press Transcript

MR. GILLESPIE: …I think history will show that this field has taken presidential discourse to a new low. The kind of rhetoric you hear from these folks when—you know, on neither side of the aisle, Ronald Reagan never said that Jimmy Carter couldn’t find countries in his own hemisphere.

(Eds. Note: Reagan was no genius, but he knew Carter could probably best him at geography, math and spelling.)

Walter Mondale never said that President Reagan was a “miserable failure.”

(Eds. Note: Mondale was on his way to a very polite, but miserable defeat-- The RNC's preferred model for Democratic campaigns.)

When Bill Clinton ran against President Bush, he didn’t compare him to Saddam Hussein or the Taliban.

(Eds. Note: No, but Bush did refer to Clinton and Gore as “those Bozos.”

And when Bob Dole ran against President Clinton, he didn’t say that he was an absolute phony or a liar.

(Eds. Note: Men who have elective plastic surgery should never call anyone else “phony”.)

The kind of words we’re hearing now from the Democratic candidates go beyond political debate. This is political hate speech.

(Eds. Note: When did the Republicans become concerned about “hate speech”?)

And I think that the American people will reject that approach. They appreciate the president’s strong and principled leadership and the fact that he has a positive agenda, and they have, frankly, nothing but negativity and pessimism and protest to offer.

(Eds. Note: Bush’s positive agenda: “Be afraid, be very afraid.”



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