Bush spoke for about half an hour, then took unscreened questions from the audience for about an hour. The first two questions were the best of the lot -- his answers, as usual, don't hold up to serious scrutiny. Q#1 Thank you for coming to Cleveland, Mr. President, and to the City Club. My question is that author and former Nixon administration official Kevin Phillips, in his latest book, American Theocracy, discusses what has been called radical Christianity and its growing involvement into government and politics. He makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the Apocalypse. Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the Apocalypse? And if not, why not? THE PRESIDENT: The answer is... [extended pause] -- I haven't really thought of it that way. (Laughter.) Here's how I think of it... First I've heard of that, by the way -- I guess I'm more of a practical fellow. I vowed after September the 11th, that I would do everything I could to protect the American people. [blah, blah, blah... ad nauseum] +++++ Q#2 Mr. President, at the beginning of your talk today you mentioned that you understand why Americans have had their confidence shaken by the events in Iraq. And I'd like to ask you about events that occurred three years ago that might also explain why confidence has been shaken. Before we went to war in Iraq we said there were three main reasons for going to war in Iraq: Weapons of mass destruction. The claim that Iraq was sponsoring terrorists who had attacked us on 9/11. And that Iraq had purchased nuclear materials from Niger. All three of those turned out to be FALSE. My question is, how do we restore confidence that Americans may have in their leaders and to be sure that the information they are getting now is correct? THE PRESIDENT: That's a great question. (Applause.) First, just if I might correct a misperception. I don't think we ever said -- at least I know I didn't say that there was a direct connection between September the 11th and Saddam Hussein. We did say that he was a state sponsor of terror... [...] But I don't want to be argumentative, but I was very careful never to say that Saddam Hussein ordered the attacks on America. Like you, I asked that very same question, where did we go wrong on intelligence. The truth of the matter is the whole world thought that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. [blah, blah, blah... ad nauseum] New Pacifica Working Group http://www.egroups.com/group/NewPacifica 'Save Our Stations!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewPacifica/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: NewPacifica-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/