Quote of the Day
"They weren't that ingenious, by the way," President Bush snapped today at a Rose Garden news conference, referring to his advance staff when answering a question about his May 1 declaration on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier that major combat was over in Iraq. Mr. Bush was specifically asked whether that declaration was premature, by a reporter who took note of the "Mission Accomplished" banner that hung behind him during the speech. The president attributed the banner to the carrier's crew and not "to some ingenious advance man from my staff." And he couldn't help sounding a little peevish when he advised the reporter "to look at my speech. I said Iraq's a dangerous place, got hard work to do, there's still more to be done." Iraq and the U.S. mission there, of course, have taken far different twists since then, with U.S. soldiers under fire many times a day and casualty tolls mounting. And that day's images of a victorious, flight-suit-wearing president, described by some Republicans as political gold five months ago, may find their way to the ads of his Democratic rivals when the campaigns heat up next year.
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