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American Morning

The Cost of War

Aired September 09, 2003 - 08:44   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: New poll numbers also suggesting that President Bush's message comes at a time when confidence across the country in the Iraqi mission is slipping. Let's talk about it with former Republican National Committee communications director Cliff May.
Good morning, Cliff. Nice to see you.

CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Democratic consultant Victor Kamber, both with us here in D.C.

Victor, I understand you got stuck on a train or something like that?

VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: Traffic. There was an accident in the tunnel I was going through.

HEMMER: You know, I tell you what, always issues to get you here on American morning. Great to see you, though.

KAMBER: Thank you.

HEMMER: Let's talk about these poll number.

CNN puts the approval rating right now for the president at 52 percent. We can put that up on the screen for our viewers. Zogby goes a bit lower than that, about 45 percent.

Cliff, what do those numbers tell you right now?

MAY: Well, not a whole lot. These numbers are about where Clinton was at this point, where Reagan was, and others were at the end of their first terms. I think what's going on in Iraq now is very important for Americans to understand. I think the president began to explain it the other night, but there's a lot more to do.

John Kerry said -- and I think quite rightly -- that 9/11 was our generation's Pearl Harbor. What happens after "Pearl Harbor," you have a war, and it's a tough one, and this is going to be a tough one. The major theater in the war on terrorism is in Iraq right now. We have to win this one, whoever the president is. We cannot cut and run from this battle.

HEMMER: You say those numbers don't mean much to you. Vick is that an understatement? KAMBER: Of course, they don't mean much when they start hurting the Republicans. They mean a lot when they're leading by big numbers. What they mean is the public is questioning, they're concerned. When Reagan and Clinton's numbers were in these numbers, they don't have a war that was going sour, they didn't have a deficit in the way we're talking about, because of war efforts.

I mean, the president, I think, for the first time the other night, started laying out to the American public the truth in terms of what it's going to cost and the length of time.

He came up with another idea as to why we're -- to justify his position there, in terms all the terrorists in the world are showing up so we got to fight. But I think for the first time when he starts talking about $87 billion, and it's going to take a long time, it was laying out to the American public something we should have done before we went to war. I think we're committed there. I think that we're committed to help rebuild this nation, but it's going to be on the backs of Americans. Our infrastructure is falling apart in this country. We're not spending anywhere near that king of money here.

HEMMER: Yes, I want to get Cliff's reaction to this. It appears right now that argument is really starting to take shape. How do you get the tax cuts? Democrats will say, how do you get the tax cuts? How do you pay for Iraq without costing too much on the domestic side? How do you do it, if at all?

MAY: Well, I think the way you do it is you grow the economy. The bigger the economy, the more tax revenue you throw off. So that's a very important part of the equations. But if the debate in 2004 is between two presidential candidates, both of whom want to aggressively pursue the war against terrorism, who have vowed never again to do what we did in the 1990s and before, which is to ignore a gathering storm, ignore people who are training terrorists who swore to kill us, then I think you will have a debate in the election over things like the economy and health care.

But if you have a Democratic candidate who says what you heard Tom Harkin saying and Kennedy saying, which is essentially, we should cut and run, we should turn our back, we can get away from these -- well, they're implying that it is. Vick, I even think you're even implying that, if you think we can just leave Iraq to the tender...

KAMBER: I didn't say that...

MAY: OK, then let's understand, we're going to fight this war for however long it takes, we're going to spend what's necessary, and at the end of the day, we're going win, and the American people are not going to have to face what they faced on 09/11.

KAMBER: Cliff, the difference is the president said the war is over.

MAY: No, no, let me...

KAMBER: I want truth. I want truth from this administration. The president said we won the war. Now he's saying...

MAY: The president never said any such thing.

KAMBER: He absolutely did, on the ship when he landed on that ship...

MAY: Victor, the ship had a banner that said mission accomplished, and the mission was the overthrowing of Saddam Hussein. That ship...

KAMBER: And the president...

MAY: Let me finish this -- this is important. That ship's mission was accomplished. But what Bush said in his speech, was one battle had been won, one battle in a war on terrorism that is going to go on for a long time. Iraq is still a dangerous place. Check the speech. That's...

KAMBER: The war on...

MAY: You didn't listen.

KAMBER: The war on terrorism is going to continue for a long time...

MAY: I agree....

KAMBER: ... in every country we have to have adversaries. The war in Iraq, he claimed was over...

MAY: He never said that.

KAMBER: Now we're dealing with reality...

HEMMER: Let's let victor finish up here.

KAMBER: It wasn't over. We're now going to spend at least $87 billion, and I'm not sure that's going to do it, to rebuild this country. And then we don't what we have once we've rebuilt it. We don't have Democracy as we know it. We will have a different form, a different regime of government. We only can hope and pray it's a country that's more aligned to our interests.

HEMMER: With that, we got to run. Kamber, May, thanks to both of you, Cliff and Victor down in D.C. Be careful in the traffic today, and be safe. Talk to you again.

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 September 9, 2003 - 08:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: New poll numbers also suggesting that President Bush's message comes at a time when confidence across the country in the Iraqi mission is slipping. Let's talk about it with former Republican National Committee communications director Cliff May.
Good morning, Cliff. Nice to see you.

CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMM. DIR.: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Democratic consultant Victor Kamber, both with us here in D.C.

Victor, I understand you got stuck on a train or something like that?

VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: Traffic. There was an accident in the tunnel I was going through.

HEMMER: You know, I tell you what, always issues to get you here on American morning. Great to see you, though.

KAMBER: Thank you.

HEMMER: Let's talk about these poll number.

CNN puts the approval rating right now for the president at 52 percent. We can put that up on the screen for our viewers. Zogby goes a bit lower than that, about 45 percent.

Cliff, what do those numbers tell you right now?

MAY: Well, not a whole lot. These numbers are about where Clinton was at this point, where Reagan was, and others were at the end of their first terms. I think what's going on in Iraq now is very important for Americans to understand. I think the president began to explain it the other night, but there's a lot more to do.

John Kerry said -- and I think quite rightly -- that 9/11 was our generation's Pearl Harbor. What happens after "Pearl Harbor," you have a war, and it's a tough one, and this is going to be a tough one. The major theater in the war on terrorism is in Iraq right now. We have to win this one, whoever the president is. We cannot cut and run from this battle.

HEMMER: You say those numbers don't mean much to you. Vick is that an understatement? KAMBER: Of course, they don't mean much when they start hurting the Republicans. They mean a lot when they're leading by big numbers. What they mean is the public is questioning, they're concerned. When Reagan and Clinton's numbers were in these numbers, they don't have a war that was going sour, they didn't have a deficit in the way we're talking about, because of war efforts.

I mean, the president, I think, for the first time the other night, started laying out to the American public the truth in terms of what it's going to cost and the length of time.

He came up with another idea as to why we're -- to justify his position there, in terms all the terrorists in the world are showing up so we got to fight. But I think for the first time when he starts talking about $87 billion, and it's going to take a long time, it was laying out to the American public something we should have done before we went to war. I think we're committed there. I think that we're committed to help rebuild this nation, but it's going to be on the backs of Americans. Our infrastructure is falling apart in this country. We're not spending anywhere near that king of money here.

HEMMER: Yes, I want to get Cliff's reaction to this. It appears right now that argument is really starting to take shape. How do you get the tax cuts? Democrats will say, how do you get the tax cuts? How do you pay for Iraq without costing too much on the domestic side? How do you do it, if at all?

MAY: Well, I think the way you do it is you grow the economy. The bigger the economy, the more tax revenue you throw off. So that's a very important part of the equations. But if the debate in 2004 is between two presidential candidates, both of whom want to aggressively pursue the war against terrorism, who have vowed never again to do what we did in the 1990s and before, which is to ignore a gathering storm, ignore people who are training terrorists who swore to kill us, then I think you will have a debate in the election over things like the economy and health care.

But if you have a Democratic candidate who says what you heard Tom Harkin saying and Kennedy saying, which is essentially, we should cut and run, we should turn our back, we can get away from these -- well, they're implying that it is. Vick, I even think you're even implying that, if you think we can just leave Iraq to the tender...

KAMBER: I didn't say that...

MAY: OK, then let's understand, we're going to fight this war for however long it takes, we're going to spend what's necessary, and at the end of the day, we're going win, and the American people are not going to have to face what they faced on 09/11.

KAMBER: Cliff, the difference is the president said the war is over.

MAY: No, no, let me...

KAMBER: I want truth. I want truth from this administration. The president said we won the war. Now he's saying...

MAY: The president never said any such thing.

KAMBER: He absolutely did, on the ship when he landed on that ship...

MAY: Victor, the ship had a banner that said mission accomplished, and the mission was the overthrowing of Saddam Hussein. That ship...

KAMBER: And the president...

MAY: Let me finish this -- this is important. That ship's mission was accomplished. But what Bush said in his speech, was one battle had been won, one battle in a war on terrorism that is going to go on for a long time. Iraq is still a dangerous place. Check the speech. That's...

KAMBER: The war on...

MAY: You didn't listen.

KAMBER: The war on terrorism is going to continue for a long time...

MAY: I agree....

KAMBER: ... in every country we have to have adversaries. The war in Iraq, he claimed was over...

MAY: He never said that.

KAMBER: Now we're dealing with reality...

HEMMER: Let's let victor finish up here.

KAMBER: It wasn't over. We're now going to spend at least $87 billion, and I'm not sure that's going to do it, to rebuild this country. And then we don't what we have once we've rebuilt it. We don't have Democracy as we know it. We will have a different form, a different regime of government. We only can hope and pray it's a country that's more aligned to our interests.

HEMMER: With that, we got to run. Kamber, May, thanks to both of you, Cliff and Victor down in D.C. Be careful in the traffic today, and be safe. Talk to you again.

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