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For Immediate Release:
March 5, 2004

Even Presidents Have Freedom of Speech

by Senator Larry Craig

Recently, there has been quite a bit of commotion over the campaign commercials using images from the destroyed World Trade Center. Many of the president's political opponents have been critical of this tactic, saying President Bush is seeking to exploit the events of September 11th for his own political gain.

I think this charge doesn't hold any water, and is hypocritical at best.

Without question, the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are the defining events of an entire generation, and, certainly, President Bush's term in office thus far. So much that has happened in the political realm since then has been related to that attack in some way.

There is nothing new about examining a presidential candidate's past performance in order to predict how that candidate would handle the duties of the office if elected. Candidates, and especially incumbents, run on their records in elected office, and it would be a disservice to voters if they did not. To tell President Bush that he cannot, as some critics are saying, is simply unreasonable and irrational.

The fact of the matter is that President Bush performed admirably in the weeks and months following 9/11. He traveled to New York City to comfort victims and their families. He rallied the firemen and rescue workers searching for their brethren in the rubble. He spoke to the nation with compassion and reassurance, and the nation responded. He took decisive action and sent a clear message to regimes who sponsor terrorism.

Aren't these facts relevant to the decision voters will be asked to make in November?

Unfortunately, to many in the print and television media, the answer to that question apparently depends more on your party affiliation than anything. There was little media outcry when liberals called for more restrictive gun-control measures from Congress in the wake of the Columbine shootings a few years back. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial points out that President Clinton gave an election-year speech in Oklahoma City in April 1996, yet few other mainstream media outlets have picked up on that observation.

The truth of the matter is that the American public responded overwhelmingly to the leadership President Bush displayed in the months following 9/11. I believe the liberal media and the president's political opponents realize that, and are now seeking to make it an unmentionable topic.

However, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If one candidate is going to point to his military service as evidencing his qualifications to be commander-in-chief, then surely another candidate ought to be able to point to his actual experience in the job.

Furthermore, it is hardly inappropriate to remind the American public how horrific 9/11 was, and that we are not out of the woods yet. The terrorist threat remains, so it is extremely important to determine how a potential president would handle that continuing threat � for instance, by meeting the enemy head-on, on foreign soil, rather than in our own streets. A candidate who has a proven record on that issue should be able to remind the American people of that fact.

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