Bush's Propaganda Machine Can't Hide Wealth of Bad Newsby Scott Lindlaw, AP, Sierra Times.com
YARDLEY, Pa. - The presidency comes with powerful tools that can help incumbents keep their jobs: a mighty public-relations machine, a bully pulpit, a famous airplane. Yet George W. Bush has been powerless to halt a recent tide of bad news, from surging violence and missing weapons in Iraq, to missteps by his own campaign, to a potentially damaging new probe by his own FBI .
...In a Friday speech, Kerry hoped to stoke the latest revelation: news that the FBI has begun investigating whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid military contracts to Halliburton Co., formerly headed by Vice pResident Dick Cheney.
...For four straight days, Bush had been dogged by a report that nearly 400 tons of explosives disappeared from Iraq's Al-Qaqaa military installation. Bush aides winced when former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a frequent Bush campaign partner and surrogate, said the troops in Iraq, not Bush, bore the responsibility for searching for the explosives.
There was more: The U.N. nuclear agency said U.S. officials were warned about the vulnerability of explosives stored at the installation after another facility was looted.
Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP-TV, which had a crew embedded with the 101st Airborne Division during the war, released videotape that it said showed soldiers examining explosives at the massive Al-Qaqaa facility nine days after the fall of Baghdad. The video [undermines] Bush's suggestion the explosives were looted before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Other "headlines" hurting Bush:
--More than 1,100 U.S. service members have died since Bush launched is Iraq war in March, 2003
--100,000 Iraqis are dead because of Bush's war
--Bush will ask Congress for another $75 billion to finance his wars on top of the $215 billion already allocated
--The Bush campaign was caught using a doctored photo in a campaign ad
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