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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Ann Lewis, Kim Alfano

Aired November 02, 2003 - 11:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As we've been reporting this morning, 15 U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq today when their Chinook helicopter was shot down near Fallujah. Tragic, yes. But you can bet these latest attacks will be used politically. Whether or not they will hurt President Bush's chances at re-election or bring any democratic candidate into clear focus remains to be seen. But we want to talk about that right now.
Our guests this morning, Ann Lewis, a former Clinton campaign consultant, and Kim Alfano, a Republican strategist. Good morning to both of you. And thanks for joining us this morning. Will this make things more difficult for President Bush? Let's start with Ann.

ANN LEWIS, FORMER CLINTON COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, I think we've already seen the American public is increasingly troubled, I'd say, by the direction that the president is taking us in Iraq. We don't know what's the plan. Is it just to continue to do more of the same? We are troubled that there doesn't seem to be a coalition, although we hear talk of a coalition.

And I again give great appreciation to our friends, the Brits, but other than the Brits it seems that Americans are being asked to do all the sacrificing in terms of troops and in terms funding. Very real questions for the president. Are you making any changes? Are we going to keep going in this same direction? This is a question for his leadership.

COSTELLO: On the other hand, Kim, we have word that there are more Iraqi police officers put into use, I should say. The level of that Iraqi security force is 200,000 by next September. That should be a help to the president, right?

KIM ALFANO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It certainly should. I mean, there are definite signs of progress. If you ask any of the traveling Senators and Congressmen as they come back from there, they agree with you. There are great signs of progress. There is a plan, and that is part of the plan, increasing the security force.

And at the end of the day, even though that Ann thinks the people are increasingly concerned, it is still predominance of people who say it was the right thing to do, to go into Iraq, to keep the country safe. That the president is doing a good job trying to keep the country safe. People feel better about it. They want us to stay there till the job gets done. But political issue may be kind of fun for the democrats, but at the end of the day, this will really be about something bigger than politics. It's going to be about the success of making our country a safer place.

COSTELLO: But lately it hasn't been so successful. 15 U.S. troops died in one day.

ALFANO: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: If this continues, won't this be bad for the president?

ALFANO: I think the American people understand that those 400 heroes who have died in Iraq since the mission in Iraq has ended, the American people understand that better those 400 people who are willing to fight for our freedom for our safety and our security, who go there knowing that, better that they give their lives in that hope and that mission than the 5,000 that were killed on our soil in New York. I think that American understands that these guys are heroes, that they've gone there as men and women who have gone there to keep us safe. While yes, there are -- it's a tragedy whenever any life is taken, I think, you know, have you to ask yourself what is success in Iraq? What is the mission? And are we being successful in making this country safer? I think the majority of America would say yes.

COSTELLO: Before we go on, I want to put up some poll numbers. This is from "The Washington Post." If the vote were held today, 48 percent would vote for Bush, 47 percent would vote for some unnamed democrat. Doesn't that look kind of bad for President Bush right now?

LEWIS: Well, I think it tells us what we knew; this country is very closely divided. People again are taking a very hard look at George Bush's leadership. And I've just got to say, no one thinks it's fun to talk about the deaths of American soldiers. And by the way, we agree, these guys are heroes. Our men and women in uniform did a brilliant job in winning the war in Iraq. You know what? They're entitled to the same kind of leadership and the same kind of planning that would enable us to win the peace. They aren't getting it.

So the question now, and I think these poll numbers make that clear, is that this is raising questions about George Bush and his administration's credibility. On the one hand, we're told that the news is good and that the press should stop showing the bad news. Then Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, gives a memo to senators saying we don't know how to measure whether we're winning. So on the one hand we're told we're making great progress, then we see and hear the news like this. This does have to be taken as a step backward. If we'd get a little more credibility here.

COSTELLO: If I may interject for just a second. Ann, isn't the problem here, though, with the democrats that none of the nine candidates, you know, nobody really likes any one of them. No one is really coming forward with an alternate plan that is striking any chord with the American people.

LEWIS: Actually, as I listen to the democratic candidates, and I agree that we've got nine of them, then they have slightly different plans. But every one talks, for example, about how we should have more international cooperation.

Maybe President Bush should ask his father. Because the first President Bush was able to build an international coalition to fight the first Gulf War and help pay for it. This President Bush is unable to build an international coalition even after we've won the war. We can have a very serious debate on that. Democratic candidates are talking about and they'll continue to talk about how we move forward, restore America's credibility at home and in Iraq.

COSTELLO: We have to give Kim the last word here before we go. Kim, go ahead.

ALFANO: Ann knows that those numbers are better than the numbers that Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, who won landslides, had at this point in their presidencies. But to go to the war in Iraq, you know, it's the democrats, if they want to run a campaign to say to the American people, that their two front-runners, Howard Dean and Wesley Clark, that it would have been better not to have done this, stick your head in the sand and keep our heads down and we'll just defend ourselves within our own borders in case we get attacked again, if they want to run a campaign to criticize President Bush about that, I think the American people will be with the president that we go to terror, take it out and bring it to justice where it exists before it gets to America. The country will be behind him on this issue.

COSTELLO: All right. Unfortunately, we are out of time. Thanks to both of you, Ann Lewis and Kim Alfano, for joining us this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 2, 2003 - 11:20   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As we've been reporting this morning, 15 U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq today when their Chinook helicopter was shot down near Fallujah. Tragic, yes. But you can bet these latest attacks will be used politically. Whether or not they will hurt President Bush's chances at re-election or bring any democratic candidate into clear focus remains to be seen. But we want to talk about that right now.
Our guests this morning, Ann Lewis, a former Clinton campaign consultant, and Kim Alfano, a Republican strategist. Good morning to both of you. And thanks for joining us this morning. Will this make things more difficult for President Bush? Let's start with Ann.

ANN LEWIS, FORMER CLINTON COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, I think we've already seen the American public is increasingly troubled, I'd say, by the direction that the president is taking us in Iraq. We don't know what's the plan. Is it just to continue to do more of the same? We are troubled that there doesn't seem to be a coalition, although we hear talk of a coalition.

And I again give great appreciation to our friends, the Brits, but other than the Brits it seems that Americans are being asked to do all the sacrificing in terms of troops and in terms funding. Very real questions for the president. Are you making any changes? Are we going to keep going in this same direction? This is a question for his leadership.

COSTELLO: On the other hand, Kim, we have word that there are more Iraqi police officers put into use, I should say. The level of that Iraqi security force is 200,000 by next September. That should be a help to the president, right?

KIM ALFANO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It certainly should. I mean, there are definite signs of progress. If you ask any of the traveling Senators and Congressmen as they come back from there, they agree with you. There are great signs of progress. There is a plan, and that is part of the plan, increasing the security force.

And at the end of the day, even though that Ann thinks the people are increasingly concerned, it is still predominance of people who say it was the right thing to do, to go into Iraq, to keep the country safe. That the president is doing a good job trying to keep the country safe. People feel better about it. They want us to stay there till the job gets done. But political issue may be kind of fun for the democrats, but at the end of the day, this will really be about something bigger than politics. It's going to be about the success of making our country a safer place.

COSTELLO: But lately it hasn't been so successful. 15 U.S. troops died in one day.

ALFANO: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: If this continues, won't this be bad for the president?

ALFANO: I think the American people understand that those 400 heroes who have died in Iraq since the mission in Iraq has ended, the American people understand that better those 400 people who are willing to fight for our freedom for our safety and our security, who go there knowing that, better that they give their lives in that hope and that mission than the 5,000 that were killed on our soil in New York. I think that American understands that these guys are heroes, that they've gone there as men and women who have gone there to keep us safe. While yes, there are -- it's a tragedy whenever any life is taken, I think, you know, have you to ask yourself what is success in Iraq? What is the mission? And are we being successful in making this country safer? I think the majority of America would say yes.

COSTELLO: Before we go on, I want to put up some poll numbers. This is from "The Washington Post." If the vote were held today, 48 percent would vote for Bush, 47 percent would vote for some unnamed democrat. Doesn't that look kind of bad for President Bush right now?

LEWIS: Well, I think it tells us what we knew; this country is very closely divided. People again are taking a very hard look at George Bush's leadership. And I've just got to say, no one thinks it's fun to talk about the deaths of American soldiers. And by the way, we agree, these guys are heroes. Our men and women in uniform did a brilliant job in winning the war in Iraq. You know what? They're entitled to the same kind of leadership and the same kind of planning that would enable us to win the peace. They aren't getting it.

So the question now, and I think these poll numbers make that clear, is that this is raising questions about George Bush and his administration's credibility. On the one hand, we're told that the news is good and that the press should stop showing the bad news. Then Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, gives a memo to senators saying we don't know how to measure whether we're winning. So on the one hand we're told we're making great progress, then we see and hear the news like this. This does have to be taken as a step backward. If we'd get a little more credibility here.

COSTELLO: If I may interject for just a second. Ann, isn't the problem here, though, with the democrats that none of the nine candidates, you know, nobody really likes any one of them. No one is really coming forward with an alternate plan that is striking any chord with the American people.

LEWIS: Actually, as I listen to the democratic candidates, and I agree that we've got nine of them, then they have slightly different plans. But every one talks, for example, about how we should have more international cooperation.

Maybe President Bush should ask his father. Because the first President Bush was able to build an international coalition to fight the first Gulf War and help pay for it. This President Bush is unable to build an international coalition even after we've won the war. We can have a very serious debate on that. Democratic candidates are talking about and they'll continue to talk about how we move forward, restore America's credibility at home and in Iraq.

COSTELLO: We have to give Kim the last word here before we go. Kim, go ahead.

ALFANO: Ann knows that those numbers are better than the numbers that Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, who won landslides, had at this point in their presidencies. But to go to the war in Iraq, you know, it's the democrats, if they want to run a campaign to say to the American people, that their two front-runners, Howard Dean and Wesley Clark, that it would have been better not to have done this, stick your head in the sand and keep our heads down and we'll just defend ourselves within our own borders in case we get attacked again, if they want to run a campaign to criticize President Bush about that, I think the American people will be with the president that we go to terror, take it out and bring it to justice where it exists before it gets to America. The country will be behind him on this issue.

COSTELLO: All right. Unfortunately, we are out of time. Thanks to both of you, Ann Lewis and Kim Alfano, for joining us this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com