To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (14165 ) 6/5/2002 1:18:55 PM From: E Read Replies (2) | Respond to Speaking of shortcomings, let's talk about character and ethics and truthfulness for a minute, this time with the subject being Bush and not the former president, Clinton, after all, being then and Bush being now.President Bush has recently taken to amusing audiences by recounting how, during the campaign, he promised never to run a deficit except in case of war, recession, or national emergency. The problem is that there's a long record of Bush promising not to touch the Social Security surplus--but no record of him ever listing these exceptions. The White House has never responded to requests from tnr or other media outlets to provide corroboration. And what makes it all the more suspicious is that Bush's recollection of his alleged campaign promise continually mutates. Last August he claimed to have promised not to dip into the Social Security surplus except in case of war or recession. Subsequently, he claimed only to have promised not to run a deficit (even with the help of Social Security surpluses), and he added a third exception: "national emergency." In the last couple of months he's added more detail to this account. Now, as Bush tells it in his speeches, he made the promise "in Chicago." He says he was asked if he would ever run a deficit by "a reporter," although at various points he has identified the questioner as "a fellow," "some guy," "they," "somebody," and "the guy." (As in, "I remember campaigning in Chicago one time, and the guy said, `Would you ever deficit spend?'") When did this Chicago promise occur? Time after time, Bush says only that it happened "during the campaign" or "when I was running for president." Last week, though, he rendered the story thusly: "When I was campaigning here [in Chicago], they said, `Hey, Mr. President, would you ever have a deficit?'" It would, of course, be odd for anybody--let alone a reporter--to have addressed Bush as "Mr. President" during the campaign. The next day Bush recounted the episode as having taken place "in 2002." Perhaps this last rendition was a slip of the tongue, but Bush seems to be saying that he announced the exceptions to his budget promise only after the promise was already broken. Which is, after all, almost certainly the truth.tnr.com
