Mr. President, who are these individuals you're referring to?

From the White House website:

Q Candidate Kerry has suggested he has support of world leaders. Do you think he should -- that should be a factor in the campaign? Was that an appropriate thing for him to say?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I think it's -- if you're going to make an accusation in the course of a presidential campaign, you ought to back it up with facts.

STATEMENTS BY BUSH: (all we did was search for "talk" in his speeches and addresses in 2004 - you don't expect us to read them all, do you?)

• March 3, 2004     --    I talked to some people who I think would say, my life is changed because of a miracle.
  
  
• February 16, 2004     --    I just want to remind everybody that tax -- the child credit is going down next year. And if you listen to some of them talking out of Washington these days, that's fine with them.
  
  
• February 19, 2004     --    I've talked to a lot of small manufacturers who explained what it means to have their power disrupted as a result of an antiquated electricity grid.

TO BE CLEAR: The first item is cited because some people, like the "foreign leaders" Kerry referred to, may not want their identies known. As to the last item, we don't deny that manufacturers are concerned about reliable power, but we are skeptical that president Bush himself has "talked to a lot of small manufacturers" about the electric grid.

posted by Quiddity at 3/16/2004 08:00:00 PM