Bush and Kerry Follow Debate With Sharp Jabs

"A day after the first presidential debate, President Bush ripped into Senator John Kerry on Friday as an equivocator who denigrates American troops and who would subject national security decisions to vetoes 'by countries like France.'

Mr. Kerry, with strategists in both parties saying he had helped himself in the first of three debates with Mr. Bush, acted at campaign rallies in Florida as though he had instantly taken the upper hand.

He told thousands of screaming Democrats that Mr. Bush thought he could 'fool you all the time' on everything from Iraq to the economy.

He mocked Mr. Bush as a stammering Elmer Fudd who was misstating Mr. Kerry's position on Iraq: 'He keeps trying to say, 'Well, we're-not-we-don't-no-we-don't-you-know, we don't want somebody who wants to leave.'

As his crowd erupted in laughter, Mr. Kerry went on: 'He says, 'We don't, we don't want to wilt or waver,' and I don't know how many times I heard that.

Mr. President, nobody's talking about leaving, nobody's talking about wilting and wavering. We're talking about winning and getting the job done right." [Emphasis mine.-J-9]

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