Morning Show Wrap, by ABC News Political Unit

 

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Each of the network morning shows led with a combination of Iraq coverage and the politics of terror. ABC was the only one to lead with the politics. Powell and Albright disagreed over Iraq and Albright repeatedly had to explain Kerry's position on Iraq.

POLITICS OF TERROR:

Dan Harris led ABC's "Good Morning America" by wrapping the politics of the 1000 death count, reporting on Kerry's new ad which mirrors his speech today, intended to "reframe Iraq as a domestic issue: every dollar spent over there is a dollar not spent over here."

COLIN POWELL:

Powell appeared on all three networks at the same time.

On ABC, strongly challenged by Charlie Gibson with numbers that show a tri-fold increase in attacks on American forces in the last few months, Powell defended the state of the war, noting "We have said that once the interim government took over… those who want to see a dictatorship again will increase their attacks."

On NBC Powell said "these young and women died for freedom. To get rid of a dictator."

Powell also said Najaf is now being "brought under control after a standoff."

MADELINE ALBRIGHT:

Also appearing on all three networks plus CNN, Albright rebutted Powell: "He's basically saying the worse it gets, the better it is, and that doesn't make sense," she said on ABC of Powell's comments. Asked repeatedly by Diane Sawyer whether soldiers' lives lost in Iraq were lost "unnecessarily," Albright dodged the questions.

Albright also used very strong language against the Iraq war itself. On ABC, she said "I don't feel any safer and I think the situation in Iraq is a mess." On CBS, she said "The attempt to pull Iraq and Afghanistan into the same story has been a choice and … a major miscalculation."

Trying to explain Kerry's position(s) on Iraq, Albright said Kerry still insists he would have voted for the Iraq War resolution "Because he believes it. It's one thing to authorize it. It's another thing to agree to how it has been carried out.… He believed that it was essential to let the inspectors do their job. If the inspectors had been allowed to do their job and they had found, or not found, weapons, there would have been more international support."

Albright also called Cheney's Tuesday remarks "one of the most outrageous statements that I have ever heard."

CHENEY/ESKEW:

Asked about Cheney's comment yesterday that in a Kerry-Edwards Administration "the danger is that we'll get hit again," Bush-Cheney advisor Tucker Eskew said to CNN's Bill Hemmer that "it's clear, Bill, that terrorists want to attack America no matter what party controls the White House. That's not the issue. The issue is how we deal with it. President Bush… decided that we need to go on the offense."