Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Bush's Credibility Gap?

Aired February 12, 2004 - 11:31   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: By any measure, 2004 isn't exactly off to a grand start for the president. First, his former treasury secretary turned on him, Paul O'Neil, then the man he sent to Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction, David Kay, said they didn't exist. And there is record deficit spending from a politician who preached fiscal order. Now you add on to that questions about Mr. Bush's National Guard service and the Democrats are ready to latch on to credibility as an election-year issue.
Tim Burger helped write about the president's troubles in the cover story for this week's "Time" magazine. He joins us from Washington this morning.

Good morning.

TIM BURGER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

KAGAN: Let's go ahead look at the latest numbers, the "Time" magazine and new CNN poll that shows Mr. Bush's numbers -- there you go. The question, opinion of Mr. Bush -- is he a leader you can trust? 44 percent say no. They have doubts and reservations, 55 percent. Not only is this not good for a sitting president, these are very low numbers for President Bush, who has been enjoying numbers well over 50 percent.

BURGER: Yes, since 09/11, he's had very high credibility ratings and good ratings as a strong leader. Lately, in the last few months, the litany you just mentioned of budget problems, continued problems in Iraq, and David Kay's announcement that he wasn't sure they would ever find the stockpiles that were feared before the war. Those things are sort of piled up, and then you add to that pile of tinder, you strike the match of this National Guard question, and he's really enjoying one of his worst weeks ever.

KAGAN: And now especially on the questions of weapons of mass destruction.

There's a live picture. He's on the road today. He's in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

On the question of weapons of mass destruction, there have been, obviously, quite a few questions. This was the basis of which President Bush made his case for the U.S. going to war in Iraq. The president did speak out a lot, and yet over the last week or so, we have seen a number of administration officials out there. President Bush on "Meet the Press." You had the George Tenet, the CIA chief, making a speech last week at Georgetown. You saw the Secretary of State Powell out there, and you also heard from Condeleezza Rice. Let's listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: What you have to do, and what the president has done, is to take the best intelligence, intelligence in this case that was intelligence from not only the United States, but from around the world, assessments from the United Nations itself. And you have to say, is this a threat? And if it is a threat, how long are we going to wait before we act, given the specter of 9/11?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And so from the president on down, you hear basically the argument is, we did the best we could.

BURGER: Right. Yes, the problem is that the reasons given for going to Iraq -- there were many of them -- but the ones that were emphasized was the fear of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction arsenal. And now that we've basically taken over a country, and it's chaos there at the moment, trying to justify it now based on the weapons that haven't turned up is proving to be quite difficult.

KAGAN: I think one of the more interesting points in the article talks about not just the credibility problem, but the timing of fighting back, and that it might have taken too long for this administration to realize there was a problem on the credibility issue. And to that, "Time" magazine goes to the idea of how loyal people are in this administration.

BURGER: Yes, the president is surrounded by a group of people who are very talented political operatives. They're primarily -- I mean, they're extremely loyal to the president. He doesn't have too many people close to him who aren't sort of Bush people, as opposed to some policy expert, who was brought in for that and not necessarily because they believed in Bush, the man.

So some people think that he might need to get some advice from folks outside that circle who might be able to sort of warn him about what might be going on in terms of slipping credibility.

However, someone like Karl Rove undoubtedly knows that as the political adviser to the president, he's got to ring the bell once in a while and point this sort of thing out. So I'm sure the president does hear some unvarnished advice as well.

KAGAN: Yes, Tim, real quickly here, as I was reading through the article, a lot of interesting points. But I was trying to read it also from the perspective of somebody with a conservative bent. And I think somebody would look at that article and say, "Time" magazine, just part of the liberal media, just bashing the president, piling on points that people are making, and not justifying points. How would you defend that?

BURGER: Well, you always hear complaints from someone who doesn't like a story, and that's fine. But the story is well grounded in fact. And in fact, a lot of conservatives are quite unhappy with the president about the budget deficit, as well as about the fact that the Medicare bill was grossly underestimated in its cost. It was a $400 billion bill before it was enacted, and then suddenly, a couple of weeks after it was put into law, it becomes more than $500 billion program. So you're talking about -- no, "Time" magazine is not inventing this sort of thing. You have people who are on the president's side who are unhappy about it.

KAGAN: And there are quotes from different senators and Congressmen in the article as well, pointing out for the first time, President Bush really feeling the heat from both sides, both from the right and from the left.

Tim, thanks for stopping by. Appreciate it.

BURGER: Thank you.

KAGAN: Tim Burger, with "Time" magazine, talking about this week's cover article.

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 February 12, 2004 - 11:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: By any measure, 2004 isn't exactly off to a grand start for the president. First, his former treasury secretary turned on him, Paul O'Neil, then the man he sent to Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction, David Kay, said they didn't exist. And there is record deficit spending from a politician who preached fiscal order. Now you add on to that questions about Mr. Bush's National Guard service and the Democrats are ready to latch on to credibility as an election-year issue.
Tim Burger helped write about the president's troubles in the cover story for this week's "Time" magazine. He joins us from Washington this morning.

Good morning.

TIM BURGER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

KAGAN: Let's go ahead look at the latest numbers, the "Time" magazine and new CNN poll that shows Mr. Bush's numbers -- there you go. The question, opinion of Mr. Bush -- is he a leader you can trust? 44 percent say no. They have doubts and reservations, 55 percent. Not only is this not good for a sitting president, these are very low numbers for President Bush, who has been enjoying numbers well over 50 percent.

BURGER: Yes, since 09/11, he's had very high credibility ratings and good ratings as a strong leader. Lately, in the last few months, the litany you just mentioned of budget problems, continued problems in Iraq, and David Kay's announcement that he wasn't sure they would ever find the stockpiles that were feared before the war. Those things are sort of piled up, and then you add to that pile of tinder, you strike the match of this National Guard question, and he's really enjoying one of his worst weeks ever.

KAGAN: And now especially on the questions of weapons of mass destruction.

There's a live picture. He's on the road today. He's in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

On the question of weapons of mass destruction, there have been, obviously, quite a few questions. This was the basis of which President Bush made his case for the U.S. going to war in Iraq. The president did speak out a lot, and yet over the last week or so, we have seen a number of administration officials out there. President Bush on "Meet the Press." You had the George Tenet, the CIA chief, making a speech last week at Georgetown. You saw the Secretary of State Powell out there, and you also heard from Condeleezza Rice. Let's listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: What you have to do, and what the president has done, is to take the best intelligence, intelligence in this case that was intelligence from not only the United States, but from around the world, assessments from the United Nations itself. And you have to say, is this a threat? And if it is a threat, how long are we going to wait before we act, given the specter of 9/11?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And so from the president on down, you hear basically the argument is, we did the best we could.

BURGER: Right. Yes, the problem is that the reasons given for going to Iraq -- there were many of them -- but the ones that were emphasized was the fear of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction arsenal. And now that we've basically taken over a country, and it's chaos there at the moment, trying to justify it now based on the weapons that haven't turned up is proving to be quite difficult.

KAGAN: I think one of the more interesting points in the article talks about not just the credibility problem, but the timing of fighting back, and that it might have taken too long for this administration to realize there was a problem on the credibility issue. And to that, "Time" magazine goes to the idea of how loyal people are in this administration.

BURGER: Yes, the president is surrounded by a group of people who are very talented political operatives. They're primarily -- I mean, they're extremely loyal to the president. He doesn't have too many people close to him who aren't sort of Bush people, as opposed to some policy expert, who was brought in for that and not necessarily because they believed in Bush, the man.

So some people think that he might need to get some advice from folks outside that circle who might be able to sort of warn him about what might be going on in terms of slipping credibility.

However, someone like Karl Rove undoubtedly knows that as the political adviser to the president, he's got to ring the bell once in a while and point this sort of thing out. So I'm sure the president does hear some unvarnished advice as well.

KAGAN: Yes, Tim, real quickly here, as I was reading through the article, a lot of interesting points. But I was trying to read it also from the perspective of somebody with a conservative bent. And I think somebody would look at that article and say, "Time" magazine, just part of the liberal media, just bashing the president, piling on points that people are making, and not justifying points. How would you defend that?

BURGER: Well, you always hear complaints from someone who doesn't like a story, and that's fine. But the story is well grounded in fact. And in fact, a lot of conservatives are quite unhappy with the president about the budget deficit, as well as about the fact that the Medicare bill was grossly underestimated in its cost. It was a $400 billion bill before it was enacted, and then suddenly, a couple of weeks after it was put into law, it becomes more than $500 billion program. So you're talking about -- no, "Time" magazine is not inventing this sort of thing. You have people who are on the president's side who are unhappy about it.

KAGAN: And there are quotes from different senators and Congressmen in the article as well, pointing out for the first time, President Bush really feeling the heat from both sides, both from the right and from the left.

Tim, thanks for stopping by. Appreciate it.

BURGER: Thank you.

KAGAN: Tim Burger, with "Time" magazine, talking about this week's cover article.

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