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Bush shrugs off Iraq controversy, poll slippage
Houston, July 20: President George W Bush has shrugged off an Iraq war controversy that refused to die and slipping poll ratings, as he stuffed millions of extra dollars into his campaign coffers.
Houston, July 20: President George W Bush has shrugged off an Iraq war controversy that refused to die and slipping poll ratings, as he stuffed millions of extra dollars into his campaign coffers.
But political opponents demanded answers from the
White House over flawed intelligence used in the drive to
convince the US public of an imminent danger posed by Saddam
Hussein, which paved the way for war in Iraq.
Bush hopped aboard Air Force One and travelled to Houston from his Texas ranch yesterday to speak at his second fundraising dinner of a weekend that garnered seven million dollars for his 2004 election war chest.
Scattered protestors greeted him at the airport, and around 100 demonstrators picketed the hotel where he spoke, some holding signs. One placard read : "He lied. Gi died" referring to US combat deaths in Iraq.
But Bush predicted a "great national victory in November of 2004" and said his administration had freed 50 million people from tyranny.
"In Afghanistan and in Iraq we gave ultimatums to terror regimes, those regimes chose defiance and those regimes are no more," Bush told cheering supporters.
Meanwhile, a new opinion poll released yesterday, showed Bush's approval ratings close to their lowest point in his presidency, following US combat deaths in post-war Iraq and a stuttering US economy.
Some 53 per cent of those polled by Zogby international approve of the job Bush is doing, down from 58 percent a month before. Bureau Report
Bush hopped aboard Air Force One and travelled to Houston from his Texas ranch yesterday to speak at his second fundraising dinner of a weekend that garnered seven million dollars for his 2004 election war chest.
Scattered protestors greeted him at the airport, and around 100 demonstrators picketed the hotel where he spoke, some holding signs. One placard read : "He lied. Gi died" referring to US combat deaths in Iraq.
But Bush predicted a "great national victory in November of 2004" and said his administration had freed 50 million people from tyranny.
"In Afghanistan and in Iraq we gave ultimatums to terror regimes, those regimes chose defiance and those regimes are no more," Bush told cheering supporters.
Meanwhile, a new opinion poll released yesterday, showed Bush's approval ratings close to their lowest point in his presidency, following US combat deaths in post-war Iraq and a stuttering US economy.
Some 53 per cent of those polled by Zogby international approve of the job Bush is doing, down from 58 percent a month before. Bureau Report