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Skriven 2006-11-01 23:31:18 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0611013) for Wed, 2006 Nov 1
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Press Briefing by Tony Snow
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 1, 2006

Press Briefing by Tony Snow
White House Conference Center Briefing Room

Press Briefing view


12:08 P.M. EST

MR. SNOW: Hello. I am available for questions. Let's go to questions.

Q Is the President going to keep mentioning Kerry in future campaign
speeches?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I mean, the President is going to talk about a lot
of things. He may talk about Senator Kerry, but more importantly, what the
President is going to talk about is the importance, as people get ready to
make decisions on Election Day, about the difference between the two
parties -- and I've mentioned this a number of times.

When it comes to fighting the war on terror, Iraq in particular, but
elsewhere, you've got two different approaches. The President has been
taking on the practical business of fighting a war on terror in such a way
as to put together the political, economic, and security pieces in Iraq,
and also creating the possibility of liberty, freedom and democracy in the
region, which is ultimately going to crush out terrorism.

On the other hand, Democrats made a deliberate decision; they simply
weren't going to make constructive comments in this election cycle about it
and, instead, were going to stand on the sidelines and jeer at the
President and call him names. That's an important difference and
distinction between the two parties because, as people ask the question,
who is serious about this, there's going to be a pretty telling contrast.

Q Can I just follow on that? Do you feel that Senator Kerry offered a
sufficient explanation and apology in his appearance this morning?

MR. SNOW: You're talking about the Imus appearance? Two words, really --
two words were sufficient to convey an apology: I'm sorry. And he hasn't --
I think Senator Kerry is -- I think he's insistent on pointing fingers at
the President, or whatever, rather than simply saying -- look, it's real
simple; you and I and everybody in this room have said things that we
didn't intend to say, and when it offends people, you say, I'm sorry, I
didn't mean to say it, I'm wrong. And he hasn't done that. All he has to do
-- it's really easy -- say, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend the troops.
But instead there's always, I'm not going to apologize for going after the
President. Fine. But there are troops out there who are clearly unhappy.

You've seen it today. You've got a number of Democrats who are stepping up,
saying, he needs to apologize. So don't take it from me, take it from
members of his own party.

Q Does the President actually believe that Senator Kerry intended to
criticize the troops?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. Intention or not, as you've seen it, when you say
things publicly, you've got to answer for them. I've had to do it; you guys
were pouncing on the Vice President last week over something. Senator
Kerry's words were pretty straightforward, and if you listen to the tone of
voice in which he said them, it's hard to construe them as a joke. He
didn't sound like he was trying to make funnies. But again, look, this is
simple. There was an insult delivered to troops, whether it was intended or
not, and the way you clean the slate is say, I didn't mean to say it, I'm
sorry.

Q But there's been a lot of dissection of this, including by you, frankly,
yesterday, who described this as a pattern. So it seems to me that it's
important as to whether the President believes that he actually meant to
malign the troops -- because, as you've heard, Senator Kerry said he didn't
mean to and he claims the President knows he didn't mean to.

MR. SNOW: You know, I don't think it really matters what the President
thinks Senator Kerry intended to say. What matters is what Senator Kerry
needs to say for members of his own party, to the American Legion, to
AMVETS, to a number of other organizations who have come out and simply
said, you need to apologize for what you said. It's not hard: I'm sorry. I
mean this is helpful advice: Just say, I'm sorry, I messed up, please
forgive me.

Q Tony, last week the Vice President -- when we went after the Vice
President on exactly what he said, nobody said, I didn't mean to say that.
The Vice President didn't say that.

MR. SNOW: No, but you said, what did you mean to say; why did you say it?
And, again --

Q Haven't had a clarification on it.

MR. SNOW: You did. The Vice President actually talked with reporters about
it.

Q Let me ask you this, though, because in reading the transcript, it's
pretty clear Senator Kerry was in the middle of going after the President
when he said this. Do you agree with that?

MR. SNOW: No, I don't, because if you look at it -- look, he had the
warm-up period where apparently he was trying to tell jokes. And then he
said, let's talk about education -- and you have the transition. Now,
usually when somebody says, let's talk about education, that doesn't mean
that he's ready to fire off the rib-ticklers. It means that it's time to
start talking about a serious topic. And if you listen -- Jim, have you
looked at the tape?

Q Sure.

MR. SNOW: I mean, does it look like he's trying to tell a joke?

Q -- obviously, it's a nebulous thing to figure out. You can read the
transcript, which he obviously dropped what it looked like in the prepared
remarks should have been, "Just ask President Bush," assuming these are
correct, the prepared remarks. But he was saying, the President lives in a
state of denial. And then he goes to another one where -- that he obviously
botched. My question is, is there a difference in your mind -- because the
AMVETS and the American Legion, everybody who is calling for Senator Kerry
to apologize, would be, if, indeed, he maligned the troops. If he was just
going after the President, that's a different story.

MR. SNOW: Okay, real simple question. Do the following words malign the
troops? "You know, education if you make the most of it, you study hard,
you do your homework, and you make the effort to be smart, you can do well,
and if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." Those are the words. That's not
the intention. We're sitting here trying to do mind-reading. We're not
playing the "what if" game. Do those words insult the troops? Apparently,
troops believe so.

And again, how hard is this? You say something, it's not what you meant to
say, you apologize. You say, I'm sorry. And instead, he's coming out and
accusing Republicans of dirty tricks. This is helpful advice. We're trying
to help you out. We're throwing you a lifeline, buddy. Just say you're
sorry. It's not hard. (Laughter.)

Q Lifesaver Tony Snow.

Q One follow on that --

Q We believe that.

Q Have you thought about --

MR. SNOW: Compassionate conservative. (Laughter.)

Q Have you thought about sending Senator Kerry a gift basket? (Laughter.)

Q Tony, a Kerry spokesman put out the prepared text as apparently he was
supposed to say it. He also put out -- or they also put out a quote that
said -- about Kerry not choosing to go on the campaign trail for a number
of stops, saying, "We made a decision not to allow the Republican hate
machine to use Democratic candidates as proxies in their distorted spin
war."

MR. SNOW: Yes, look, they're committing acts of hate and accusing us of
being hateful. I'm not trying to be hateful to John Kerry. I like John
Kerry. When I was at FOX and at "FOX News Sunday," we had a perfectly
cordial relationship. I keep saying, this should not be hard. Everybody in
public life has had an occasion where they've said something they wish they
could take back. So what you do, is you simply apologize. And instead what
this -- it's sort of emblematic of the approach that's been taken in this
election, which is, well, we won't deal with the substance, we will call
Republicans names.

We didn't say it, we didn't arrange the press conference, we didn't tell
him to call Imus. I mean, all these are things that Senator Kerry decided
to do. And it seems to me -- I don't know how much simpler this can be.
This is one of these things that happens.

Q What impact do you think it will have on the election in six days? And
what are you telling Republican candidates to do with it?

MR. SNOW: I'm not telling Republican candidates anything, as far as what to
do with it. You have heard me talk in recent days about how important it is
to get people to focus on substantive issues. And again, it's striking that
in the war on terror -- winning the war on terror, Democrats have decided
they're not going to tell you what their plan is. It's the most important
issue; why not tell you what the plan is? There are clear differences when
it comes to dealing with the economy. Those are things that people are
going to care about. I don't know what impact this is going to have. I'll
leave that to pollsters and others who are making prognostications.

Q Would you call this an unnecessary distraction from talking about the
issues?

MR. SNOW: I'd call it -- look, I don't know. You're asking the questions.
You decide -- you ask me whether you think it is. I mean, it's -- look,
it's one of those issues that I think in some ways -- the troops need to
understand not only do we support them, but most of the people who are on
the battlefront today volunteered for service knowing what they were
getting into, and knowing what the cause was. You can't say, I support the
troops, but I hate the cause, because that's why they signed up. And you've
got men and women who are risking their lives for what they consider a
noble cause, which is not only defeating al Qaeda and defeating terrorists
abroad, but also creating conditions that are going to allow people in that
part of the world to brush aside terror as an unnecessary distraction to
building a better life through free and democratic society.

Q Last thing. Following on Jim's question, do you think that the President
believes that Senator Kerry was somehow minimizing troop sacrifice in Iraq
by this statement?

MR. SNOW: Again, I think Senator Kerry's statement is what it is. I haven't
heard the President try to characterize it that way, and I don't think he
would. Again, this was a statement that seemed to talk about the nature of
the troops: "You do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you
can do well; and if you don't you get stuck in Iraq." I mean it's -- I mean
the statement is what it is. I don't think it's necessary to try to expand
it.

Jessica.

Q Tony, two questions. First, we haven't heard Rush Limbaugh apologize
directly to Michael J. Fox, but the President has accepted his apology. Why
is that acceptable and John Kerry's comments today --

MR. SNOW: A couple of things: Number one, Rush Limbaugh is not the head of
a political party, nor was he a former presidential nominee. The second
thing he said, if I got it wrong, I apologize. That's what he said, so he's
saying that if the facts were wrong --

Q And John Kerry has said, I botched the joke, which is, I got it wrong.

MR. SNOW: Okay. But you know what? If you're a troop in Iraq, if you're
somebody serving in Iraq, and you've heard this, do you really think, oh,
he botched the joke? Why don't you just say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, guys.
I'm sorry.

Q The President sat for an interview with Rush Limbaugh today. Why hasn't
he called on Rush Limbaugh to make that same kind of apology to people who
have Parkinson's disease?

MR. SNOW: Because, again, he's made the -- Rush Limbaugh has made his
comments -- I love the diversion, but we're talking about -- there is a
difference between -- okay, the apology came. Rush has said, if I got it
wrong, I apologize. So he's asking -- he's saying if he got the statement
of the facts wrong, he apologizes.

My question is, why hasn't Senator Kerry just said I'm sorry? I mean that,
to me, seems to be a much simpler and more direct question that has to do
-- and furthermore, why won't anybody on your team simply say, okay, we've
got to win, here's how we plan to win? Just give a plan.

Q May I ask you about a plan to win then?

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q There is a report in today's New York Times that Central Command had
drawn up an analysis showing that the U.S. and Iraq is one step closer to
chaos -- the situation in Iraq is one step closer to chaos. This was drawn
up before the President said in his last press conference, "We are
absolutely winning." Was the President aware of this report saying Iraq is
closer to chaos before he told the nation we're winning?

MR. SNOW: I don't think he was, but you know, what you're probably not
aware of is that these are done regularly, and that was a snapshot taken at
the height of the Ramadan violence. If you got the same report last week,
you would have found out that national sectarian incidents from the 21st to
the 27th dropped 23 percent; casualties nationwide dropped 23 percent;
incidents of sectarian violence in Baghdad dropped 23 percent; sectarian
killings in Baghdad dropped 41 percent. You had a snapshot at a single
point when it was violent.

What the President understands is that in a war on terror where we have not
lost a single combat engagement, he's made the point, the only way we'll
lose is if we give up, if we walk out before the job's done. He's got
confidence in the troops. He's also got confidence in the fact that the
Iraqi people, out of their own self-interest, know that they have to tamp
down sectarian violence, and they got to go after al Qaeda, which is busy
trying to foment the sectarian violence because they understand that if you
get a failed state in Iraq, they have a launch pad.

Q But just to be clear; what the commanders on the ground tell the
President, "in the large picture, we are stepping closer to chaos," he
believes that can also be a picture of winning?

MR. SNOW: Yes, because -- you know what the President understands -- do you
understand, Jessica --

Q "Closer to chaos" is the same as winning?

MR. SNOW: No, because what you have just done is you've attached your
interpretation to a single chart. It doesn't say devolving into chaos. And
furthermore, I've just told you, since then, you've had a pretty dramatic
reversal. Does this mean that now that you've had national sectarian
incidents, casualty from sectarian violence, incidents of sectarian
violence in Baghdad all down 23 percent, and the deaths and casualties down
41 percent, that you do a victory lap? No. It's a war, Jessica, and
sometimes things get worse, and what you do is you adjust to make sure that
you win.

Q Tony, you may just want to correct one thing. You say that John Kerry is
the head of a political party; that's obviously wrong.

MR. SNOW: Well, he was the titular head. That's right. Howard Dean is the
head of the party.

Q -- because he doesn't head anything anymore.

MR. SNOW: That's true; you're right. Howard Dean is. I stand corrected.

Q Isn't the administration and the Republicans trying to exploit this Kerry
flap to turn the focus away from the handling of the war in Iraq, which
does not reflect necessarily well on the Republicans, and towards the
President's insistence that the Democrats can't be trusted with national
security?

MR. SNOW: No, actually, the people who have been diverting attention on
this is John Kerry. Again, John Kerry called the press conference
yesterday. It was colorful, it was kind of cool. You know, he calls it; he
calls Imus today. I mean we're not the ones who've been fanning the flames
on this.

Q The President just hammered this home standing at a rally in Georgia.

MR. SNOW: The President made a comment about it. But the idea -- I think
that you will have to concede that the great passion and temper on this has
been coming from the Kerry camp and not the President's camp.

As for the war on terror, as I've told you before -- as I've told you
before, we're not only happy to talk about what's going on in the war on
terror, we're also happy to talk about what's not going on. You see, the
President understands the fight. You've got a military component. You've
got to do that. When the President proposed the Patriot Act, which, among
other things, allows local police departments to know on the basis of
intelligence gathered abroad that there's a terror cell in your
neighborhood, the President proposed that. Democrats voted against the act.

When it came to the Terrorist Surveillance Program, pretty simple -- you
got a terror cell here in the United States talking to their terror masters
abroad, and we wanted to find out what they were talking about -- the
majority of Democrats say, we don't like the idea. When it came to a
program that would take the worst terror masters off the battlefield, put
them in confinement, question them -- detain them, question them, bring
them to trial, a majority of Democrats voted against it.

So the question is, okay, you're against all those things; many of you did
not vote to finance the war -- before you were against, and all that --
then the question is, what are you for? How do you intend to win this thing
if you don't want to be listening to terrorists, if you don't want to be
detaining them, if you don't want the Patriot Act? What on earth do you
want to do? And that ought to be a central question in this debate: What's
your plan. And when it comes --

Q Instead, you and other Republicans are gleefully jumping on these
comments by Senator Kerry.

MR. SNOW: I did not bring Senator Kerry up once in any of these briefings;
you did.

Q Tony, but the Vice President -- you just released a short time ago
excerpts of what he's going to say six or seven hours from now, and he's
going to jump on John Kerry.

MR. SNOW: I haven't -- I actually haven't read his comments. You can read
them out or show them to me. I haven't read them yet.

Q But basically, when you cited the Vice President before as an example,
what he said last week about a dunk in the water, some human rights groups
interpret that to mean, the Vice President -- they interpret it that the
Vice President was condoning water boarding and that he was condoning
torture. The Vice President came out, spoke to reporters, and said, that's
absolutely not what I meant. He never apologized to anyone if they took it
wrong, or anything like that. And you basically said, look, people took it
the wrong way, he did not condone that. John Kerry is now saying, that's
not what I meant. Why won't you take him at his word, like you wanted the
Vice President --

MR. SNOW: I'll tell you what I did, is I actually took the Vice President
at his word and recited it verbatim. The question you've got to ask is, why
are you trying to explain it away rather than ask the simple question?

Q I'm not trying to explain it away.

MR. SNOW: Well, it's --

Q You cited the example of the Vice President, and said, "last week you all
jumped on him."

MR. SNOW: What did I do? I read the Vice President's exact words. And I'm
reading -- look, Harold Ford has come out today and said, please -- I don't
think he said, please -- but he said --

Q The Vice President's own words were -- he was asked a question about a
dunk in the water, is that okay --

MR. SNOW: Then he said it's a no-brainer. And then he's explained that, and
I read back the words precisely. So I've read back the words. Why doesn't
Senator Kerry, rather than saying, I meant to put in the word, "us" -- and
you try to put in "us" here, left out the word "us" -- and if you don't --
if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq. Where does "us" fit in? You don't "us"
get stuck? I don't understand. It just -- it doesn't scan here.

Q We're not here to explain his words. But you were saying the Vice
President --

MR. SNOW: It's up to him to explain his words. And so what they've done now
is said, he didn't say what he meant to say. Fine. Then just get out and
say, I messed

-- not merely that I botched a line, follow it up, because apparently a lot
of people are pretty ticked off about this, Ed. And what they say is, it
came across as an insult to us, and the way you deal with it when you make
an insult, just say you're sorry.

Q Another subject, today you put out a pretty tough statement about the
Sinioran government, saying that Syria needs to watch it, essentially. How
concerned are you that there is an effort to topple the Sinioran
government, the democracy there?

MR. SNOW: We think it's important -- let me put it this way -- we are
committed to the success and the stability of the Siniora government and we
want to make it clear to everybody in the region that that's a priority.
The President talks often about the importance of a young democracy in the
region -- young democracies. Lebanon is clearly one, Iraq is another that
we're absolutely committed to, because we understand, again, the power of
an example is something that everybody in that region is looking for. And
if you have the example of a stable democracy that's able to fend off
terror -- in the case of Lebanon, from Hezbollah -- then you have an
opportunity to create an entirely different set of circumstances in the
Middle East, all of which are going to be good for us.

Q We're interested in the good parts of democracy, but why did you put out
the statement? Are you concerned there have been reports about arms
smuggling and whatnot?

MR. SNOW: Well, let me just say --

Q Are you concerned about it being toppled?

MR. SNOW: No, we're just -- we're making it clear to everybody in the
region that we think that it ought to be hands off the Siniora government.
Let them go about and do their business.

Q Tony, two questions. First, you say that you want to see Democrats offer
-- engage in a more substantive way on Iraq.

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q And yet when Democrats do that, their ideas are either rejected out of
hand, as was the case with Biden's idea of partitioning Iraq, or in the
case of Murtha, he had Republican members of Congress effectively accuse
him of being a coward and say that the idea doesn't reflect reality. So
when you have substantive proposals, redeploying troops is a substantive
proposal, partitioning the country is substantive.

MR. SNOW: Okay, well, let me put it this way --

Q Why not engage? Why dismiss it out of hand?

MR. SNOW: No, we didn't dismiss it out of hand. When it came to Jack
Murtha, when we talked about what they called phased redeployment, we made
the point that if you leave in Iraq without reference to the conditions on
the ground, that's the same as walking away from the fight and leaving a
vacuum that could be very dangerous. That's a serious argument. And when he
said that his phased redeployment would be to Okinawa, we pointed out that
that puts ships at a very great distance away from the action. So the point
here is that we did take them seriously.

When it came to Senator Biden talking about partitioning -- I gave you the
reasons for that. This was not dismissed out of hand.

Q -- dismissed it as a non-starter. How is that --

MR. SNOW: But then -- were you here when I also talked about the reasons
why it would be a non-starter? Okay, so that was a substantive response.
And look, Joe Biden is a guy that I consider a serious guy. So the answer
is, we haven't dismissed them out of hand, but that, to me, also does not
seem to answer the question -- and here's the thing, I've been pretty
precise about it -- what's your strategy for winning? What's your strategy
for victory? And neither of those are addressed by the proposals you just
mentioned.

Q Arguably, partitioning Iraq so that parts of the country can stabilize
and govern themselves is a strategy.

MR. SNOW: How do you have -- but as I've pointed out, look, I'll be happy
to have the debate, but the fact is the Iraqis -- this is a way of saying
to the Iraqis, you know that constitution you just did, we're not going to
pay attention to it. What it shows is disrespect for the Iraqi people who
have selected a constitution, who have elected a government, who have
identified themselves as Iraqi citizens, who are embarked upon programs of
national reconciliation -- the Prime Minister, you've heard me say, has
been very active on this -- of security and economics. In other words, it's
a way of saying to them, sorry, we're going to dismiss your efforts.

We believe that the best way to preserve that democracy is to give it the
ability to stand up, and at the same time, provide conditions both in terms
of reconciliation and economic opportunities that are going to give people
a reason to buy in vigorously to the success of the country. So it seems to
me that we have responded, and we've tried to be thoughtful in responding
to these things. But again, ask yourself, is that a formula for victory, or
not? And I don't see that as a formula for victory.

Q Can I follow up --

I'll get back to the front row. I've promised to move things around. Okay,
Connie and then David. Go ahead.

Q Tony, thanks. You haven't said much about Israel and the Palestinians
lately. Have you given up on any Palestinian state in the foreseeable
future? And is the U.S. still giving humanitarian aid to the Palestinians?

MR. SNOW: I'll double-check. I think we still are. But, no, we're committed
to a Palestinian state. We think that it's absolutely essential that you
have democratic states -- Palestinian and Israel -- standing side by side.

But on the other hand, you still have the fundamental preconditions for
that Palestinian state, which is that you have to acknowledge Israel's
right to exist, you have to renounce terror, and you have to abide by prior
treaty obligations. We continue hoping that Prime Minister Abbas -- or
President Abbas is going to be able to have a government organized that
will be able to pursue those goals. And we've also noted, the President has
noted that at a time -- it was kind of curious where they seemed to be
getting closer to working out something with the Olmert government, you had
the kidnapping of two different Israel soldiers, one in Gaza and one in
Lebanon. So those are sources of concern, but we remain committed to those
goals.

Q And on Lebanon, the Hezbollah leader said that there are some
U.N.-mediated talks underway possibly to free the two Israeli soldiers. Is
the U.S. involved in this at all?

MR. SNOW: Not that I'm aware of, but I don't know.

Q I want to take you back to your Lebanon statement here. You said that
there was mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments and
Hezbollah and their allies are trying to topple the government. But the
rest of the statement doesn't describe what that evidence is. The only
thing it goes on to describe is an effort to stop formal approval of the
statute on the international tribunal, which is quite different than
toppling a government.

MR. SNOW: That is correct. And, David, as somebody who at least I think
spends a fair amount of time talking to people who handle classified
information, you will understand why we do not necessarily go into greater
detail about those. It serves a diplomatic purpose, and an important one.

Q I can understand that, but at the same time, you're making a fairly
serious charge that two governments are seeking to overturn the government
of a neighbor. And it would seem to me that that would require at least
some characterization of the evidence in declassified form. Could you tell
us any more about it?

MR. SNOW: No, but thanks for the advice. We'll pass it on.

Paula.

Q I have a question on higher education funds --

MR. SNOW: Can I --

Q No, this is related to your brouhaha. Please.

MR. SNOW: Okay, I just -- okay, please, go ahead.

Q Isn't the actual issue here that higher education, access to higher
education is really becoming more and more unreachable for the middle- and
low-income students, and because of that -- because of that, many of them
feel they have no other way of getting an education, job training, access
to college, unless the state -- unless they go into the military?

MR. SNOW: No. What you've just said is, if you've got -- if you're poor and
you can't get an education, go into the military. The military has always
been certainly a ladder of opportunity. But if you take a look at the data,
you find out that more of the people who already have college degrees are
joining the military. So what you've conflated here is a fact -- the price
of -- the cost of higher education, and the President is concerned about
it, he's made no bones about that. But, no, it's not the high cost of
college that's driving people into the military. You know what it is? It's
a sense of calling. They feel that they're -- yes. Believe it or not. They
may disagree with you on --

Q Follow up, please.

MR. SNOW: Yes, please.

Q The College Board put out a study last week, and in that study it said
that the cost -- the rising cost of tuition is making it virtually
impossible for many low- and middle-income students to either start
college, or if they're enrolled in college, they either can't go four
years, they opt for two years, or they just can't go. Now, this whole issue
about -- making an effort to be smart -- isn't this really the issue of, if
you're not smart enough to get a merit scholarship, and you can't afford to
go to college like your wealthier counterparts, then what other option do
you have for education?

MR. SNOW: Paula, number one, you don't want to get yourself into the
business of trying to interpret this, because Senator Kerry --

Q You are.

MR. SNOW: No. No, as a matter of fact, I'm saying, here's what Senator
Kerry said, he's got to explain it. I don't think he was making a comment
about his desire for more Pell grants. So -- I mean, these are important
issues. The President has increased Pell grant funding. He believes in this
stuff, and he thinks it's important for everybody to have access to
education.

David.

Q I just want to go back to this, because you made two separate charges in
this briefing. One is that Democrats don't have a plan for Iraq. And then
you said a moment ago that they don't have a plan for victory. So if the
standard is a plan for victory, nearly every public measurement of -- every
measurement of public opinion in this country indicates that the public
doesn't believe the President has a plan for victory. And the reality is
that whether it's partition, whether it's phased troop withdrawal, or troop
withdrawal begins by the end of this year, this is an either strategic or
tactical suggestion, based on how you define it so we don't have to define
it here -- but it's about salvaging the policy. So, what I'm getting at is,
how can you have it both ways?

MR. SNOW: I'm not trying to have it both ways --

Q Well, you say that's not a plan, but clearly it is a plan insofar as it
is a suggestion about how you change it either tactically or strategically.

MR. SNOW: Well, no. When you're doing strategic or tactical changes you do
it based on realities on the ground, not on a desire to go. And the signal
difference is, when you're talking about phased redeployment, that makes no
reference to conditions on the battlefield, and no reference to what's
going on.

The President has been absolutely clear: You don't do that. You don't walk
away from people that you've been working with. The other thing is that we
have seen -- and it's a little glimmer, but it's something worth taking
note of, which is we have been training up thousands and thousands of Iraqi
troops; they are now fully in control of two provinces, others to come
shortly; 13 of the 18 provinces generally peaceful and doing well. But we
also understand especially the concentration of violence around Baghdad.
What have you seen there? You've seen the Prime Minister being far more
assertive about the need to go after them. When he was in the secure video
conference last week with the President he was talking about the need to be
able to hit quickly and precisely, with the best possible intelligence, for
the people who are -- going on.

Now, this is what we want, ultimately. The purpose of this war is not for
the United States to win it, but for Iraq to win it. And we are continuing
to train, we're continuing to work with them on economic solutions, we're
continuing to work with them on the business of getting the international
community to get in -- that's the Iraq compact. We've also been working
with them on the business of political reconciliation. All of those are
important pieces, and we're doing everything we can to help them out. But
again, the stark difference is -- if you're talking about phased
redeployment, it means we're trying to get out. It looks like you're trying
to save face rather than finish the job.

Q But in point of fact, one of the leading Democratic proposals relies upon
measurements of political progress on the ground, which, incidentally, is
very close to what this administration's policy is, which is benchmarks by
the Maliki government. So where's the difference?

MR. SNOW: Well, what's interesting -- you're talking about the most recent
Biden proposal that was in a couple of weeks ago? Yes, I mean, on that one,
he actually -- he sort of agrees with us on everything but whether to break
it into pieces. And it was interesting because in many ways it's an
affirmation of the approach the President is taking.

Q So do you stand by the idea that they don't have a plan? Do you think
that's a fair or really substantive charge?

MR. SNOW: Yes. Ask yourself, is there a substantive Democratic plan for
dealing with these things. That is, the Democratic leaders have said, this
is our position. This is what we'll do. And you found sort of scattered
suggestions, but you don't have any cohesive policy when it comes to
dealing with Iraq.

Goyal.

Q A question on the President's global war on terrorism. After General
Musharraf was at the White House -- lectured from the President that he has
to do more --

MR. SNOW: He got lectured, is that what you said? No. The President doesn't
engage in lectures. They had a conversation. Go ahead.

Q -- but back in Pakistan he ordered -- to go after madrassa. And what he
said, that it was based on U.S. intelligence. Now they are thousands of
people in the streets of Pakistan and they are chanting anti-American
slogans. Is the President satisfied what General Musharraf has done, and
now the President concerned about --

MR. SNOW: Let me put it this way -- and I took this up yesterday. There was
a strike, and it was intended to go after al Qaeda, and the Pakistani
government did it on the basis of intelligence that it had gathered, and we
support them in this.

The other thing you got to understand is that a tactic of the Taliban, or
al Qaeda, or people on both sides of that border who are trying to commit
acts of terror, are going to do everything the can to create carnage and
kill civilians. We know that. We've seen that in the last couple of weeks
in Afghanistan, as well. We understand it. It makes it tough. And President
Musharraf is showing determination, and it is in a situation that certainly
has its political perils, and it requires courage and determination on his
part.

Q Just to go back to the Kerry thing. The President said in Georgia that --
he said, "The members of the United States military are plenty smart." That
was after Kerry said he wasn't talking about the United States military in
his remarks. Doesn't that have to mean that the President believes that
Kerry is lying when he --

MR. SNOW: No, he was referring to Senator Kerry's statement. Again, Senator
Kerry --

Q But he has to be interpreting it in a way that Kerry has clearly said he
did not mean it -- he has to be saying that Kerry is lying.

MR. SNOW: What Senator Kerry said is, I believe, that he forgot a word.
Then you try to put the word in, and it doesn't work. And then he said, no,
I really meant to insult the Commander-in-Chief in a time of war. That's
probably not an argument he wants to make either in terms of support for
the troops. But the President is referring to what he said and what Senator
Kerry, when it came out, said, I apologize to no one for it. Now, it seems
to me that all he has to do is take back the statement.

Q It just seems very clear. The Vice President, in his prepared remarks,
said that Cheney {sic} took a swipe at the U.S. military.

MR. SNOW: You mean Senator Kerry.

Q Kerry, that Kerry took a swipe. He clearly has said that. I mean both of
them must be thinking that he's lying, basically calling him a liar by --

MR. SNOW: No. I think, look, Senator Kerry, as I pointed out yesterday --
look, Senator Kerry's problems are with fellow Democrats and servicemen and
women. That's who his problems are with. And it's a pretty easy matter to
remedy. In 1971 -- now, Senator Kerry served with valor. I mean you get a
Silver Star, that's important. But then he came back, and he accused some
of his fellow Vietnam vets of committing atrocities. Last year, he was
talking about U.S. forces going after children in -- let me see if I can
find the precise quote here. Let's see. I don't have it with me. I read it
out yesterday. But he was talking -- oh, here is what he said. He said that
they were terrorizing kids and children in Iraq. You know, I mean there are
-- servicemen and women just want him to say, look, you got me wrong; I'm
one of you, I served, I did my time, I got a Silver Star, forgive me for
saying what's wrong.

Q Two questions on Iraq. Is the decision about whether to possibly add
100,000 Iraqi troops to the rolls over there gone to the President's level?
If so or not, what does he -- how important does he think that is?

MR. SNOW: Well, we think it's important to get sufficient troops on the
ground in Iraq. I don't know if we've got a magical number, but that
certainly seems within the ballpark, and it may even be higher. The real
key is to continue to create professional, capable Iraqi forces that are
going to be able to deal with the military issues. And as I've talked
before, Craig, also you've got the affiliated challenge, or the related
challenge of training a police who are equally professional.

Q Are you saying it could be higher --

MR. SNOW: I don't know. That's a question for General Casey, and also for
the Iraqi government.

Q Second question is, how much does Maliki's decision to take down some of
these checkpoints raise the question of whether he is, or is not, cracking
down on these sectarian militias -- that are really the major problem?

MR. SNOW: And they continue to be. What happened is -- and this is one
thing that I'm afraid we didn't explain as we should have -- the Prime
Minister, Zal Khalilzad and General Casey all agreed that they were going
to take down some of the checkpoints. There was a real concern that for a
lot of Iraqis trying to get to work, they had to wait two or three hours
just to get through a checkpoint, and it was becoming a real problem for a
lot of people. And so it created avenues for people to get in and out and
get to work.

Now, as for dealing with specific terror areas -- and also Prime Minister
Maliki has said that he believes that only about 5 percent of those in Sadr
City are supportive of and/or are responsible for violence. So what you
have to do is you have to go after them. We're continuing to go after them.
So there is no slackening of the desire to go after the people who are
creating violence. But also there's a pretty keen understanding that in a
city of 4 million, you got to make it possible for people to get to work.

Q Does that mean Casey and Khalilzad agreed with the decision?

MR. SNOW: Yes.

Q And do you agree with the 5 percent number?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I will defer to Prime Minister Maliki who lives in
Baghdad.

Q Tony, I have two. The first one is, what is the status of the kidnapped
American soldier?

MR. SNOW: We are still looking for him.

Q And the second one is, on the Kerry thing, in the event that he
apologizes, will the President give the command as head of the Republican
Party for the attack dogs to be called off?

MR. SNOW: I think Harold Ford will stop without a directive from the
President.

Q What about the Republican attack dogs?

MR. SNOW: It's interesting, "attack dogs" is kind of a loaded term,
Victoria. I think what you might want to say is, will people accept his
apology. Let's see what happens.

Q What do you think? Do you think Republicans will accept his apology?

MR. SNOW: You know what, let's see -- first, ask if I -- he has to
apologize. You know, we always play the hypothetical game, but let me put
it this way -- people are pretty forgiving when somebody says, I messed up
and I'm sorry.

Q Tony, in the days leading up this election, many people are likening it
to a football game: the pressure is on and both sides are cracking. Last
week, the Vice President; this week, you have Kerry. What are the stakes?

MR. SNOW: Look, the stakes are a couple of things. How you approach the
economy is clearly one of them; what do you think you ought to do to keep
the economy growing; how do you approach the war on terror? Democrats have,
as a matter of policy, been trying to resist what the President does. You
know, I went through the Patriot Act, the Terrorist Surveillance Program,
the detainee act. Those are all important matters, and it's going to be
interesting -- look, you know, what we hope happens after this is that
tempers cool and people will realize that the problems we face are not
going to go away. You're not going to wish them away. You're going to have
to deal with them practically and we're going to have to deal with them
together.

Q Tony, let's talk beyond dealing together. Let's talk about the stakes for
the Republican Party. How tight is it for the Republican Party leading into
it?

MR. SNOW: How tight is it? Look, this is a close election. It's why
everybody is busily engaged in doing everything we can to support
Republican candidates. No question about that. And I think Democrats will
tell you the same thing. It is a tight election, and it's one that we think
is important because the President does need people who are going to
support him as he does a number of things, whether it be on the economy, on
the war on terror, on judges, on education, on energy. This is a President
who's been an activist President on the domestic side. He's been taking on
things that people want addressed and we intend to do that straight through
to the last day of this administration. But it certainly would be better to
have more friends that foes on Capitol Hill.

Q Will cool heads prevail in the days leading up to -- cool heads prevail,
no more controversies, you think?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. I don't make them up, I just deal with them.

Q Tony, quick question.

MR. SNOW: Speaking of controversy, what are you going to throw at me?
(Laughter.)

Q The President -- first question: The President has expressed reservations
about human egg farming and cloning embryos for research. What is his
opinion of the Missouri plan to allow these procedures through a state
constitutional amendment?

MR. SNOW: What the President has said is that he does not believe that
federal money ought to be used for embryonic stem cell research that
requires the destruction of the human life. He also understands that there
is considerable debate about this, and he has not stood in the way of
people who want to do private investment. And there are a number of states
that are doing investment in it, as well.

It's worth pointing out, once again, that in the areas that have shown by
far the most promise and actually have demonstrated the ability to deal
with degenerative conditions -- and that would be adult blood cord stem
cells. We continue to have a vigorous funding program and will continue to
because the President, like everybody else, wants to figure out if there's
some way to unlock the promise of these -- to deal with awful diseases like
Parkinson's and others.

Q Yesterday you told us you would be speaking at the Michael Steele U.S.
Senate Campaign in Maryland, which I subsequently learned is scheduled
tonight at 6 p.m., "somewhere in Potomac," with no address available
because it is barred to media, this in the last week of the campaign. And
my question: Why are you, as a wonderfully available and receptive
presidential press secretary, participating in this censored-from-all-media
event in one of the 13 original states which voted for freedom of press?

MR. SNOW: You know, remember the statement, Les, a man's home is his
castle? Apparently you wish to storm the castle.

Q Can I follow up on that?

MR. SNOW: Yes, go ahead.

Q Just for one second. You are going to be at the Steele fundraiser
tonight, and apparently it is closed to the press because of the campaign's
decision and the people at the house. But if you could tell us, then, what
message do you bring to people like that --

MR. SNOW: Oh sure.

Q -- people at these fundraisers? And also, will you talk about John Kerry
tonight?

MR. SNOW: Not unless I'm asked. I mean, what I intend to do -- you've seen
it, you've seen plenty of tapes of these -- is that I give a positive
message about what the President is doing and what it promises for a better
America. And that's what I continue to do.

I am not going to be inserting any comments about Senator Kerry. I think
it's -- look, I think it's absolutely important in motivating people.
You've got plenty of folks who can tell you the negative consequences;
let's talk about the positive consequences. And that seems to me, quite
often, to be a more powerful incentive to become active in politics and to
feel good about it.

So you've seen the speeches -- a lot of them have been televised -- and
it's pretty much the same thing, and it's going to be the same thing that
I've been delivering around the country. Yes, there will be a couple of
modifications because Mike is an old friend of mine, and I think very
highly of him, and I certainly will lend my warm personal regards to him,
as well.

Q Can't we hear --

MR. SNOW: No. It's a closed event.

Q Can you touch on what was discussed or accomplished in the meeting
between President Bush and Secretary Rice --

MR. SNOW: No. The President -- I think he's probably finished the meeting
with Secretary Rumsfeld now. No, as you know, we don't talk about the
internal deliberations. And this is a regular meeting with the Secretary of
State and the President, and we're not going to read it out.

Q Can you confirm that North Korea came up?

MR. SNOW: No, I can't. I was not in the room.

Okay, thank you.

END 12:50 P.M. EST
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