Why didn't Kerry-Edwards attack Bush on flying Osama's family out of U.S. on 9/13/2001?

[Suburbia]

Why didn't Kerry-Edwards run on this story in the last days of the 2004 campaign? Tie Bush to Saudi Arabia instead of allowing the 2004 Republicans to define Kerry as soft on terror/defense?

Top White House officials personally approved the evacuation of dozens of influential Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, from the United States in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when most flights were still grounded, a former White House adviser said today.

The adviser, Richard Clarke, who ran the White House crisis team after the attacks but has since left the Bush administration, said he agreed to the extraordinary plan because the Federal Bureau of Investigation assured him that the departing Saudis were not linked to terrorism. The White House feared that the Saudis could face ''retribution'' for the hijackings if they remained in the United States, Mr. Clarke said.

The fact that relatives of Mr. bin Laden and other Saudis had been rushed out of the country became public soon after the Sept. 11 attacks. But questions have lingered about the circumstances of their departure, and Mr. Clarke's statements provided the first acknowledgment that the White House had any direct involvement in the plan and that senior administration officials personally signed off on it.

Mr. Clarke first made his remarks about the plan in an article in Vanity Fair due out Thursday, and he expanded on those remarks today in an interview and in Congressional testimony. The White House said today that it had no comment on Mr. Clarke's statements.

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/us/white-house-approved-departure-of-saudis-after-sept-11-ex-aide-says.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cebnlqi9RGQ&t=5894s

[One Term Floridian]

I think the Kerry campaign was similar to Dukakis' before it in terms of trying to take the high road all while the Bush campaign played in the dirt and pummeled them with negative advertising from day 1.

[Suburbia]

I think the Kerry campaign was similar to Dukakis' before it in terms of trying to take the high road all while the Bush campaign played in the dirt and pummeled them with negative advertising from day 1.

They were too weak.....this should have been a big story, but the Kerry campaign was way too lax.

[Schiff for Senate]

I think it might have backfired and made Kerry seem more petty, overly negative, and desperate to win.

[Suburbia]

I think it might have backfired and made Kerry seem more petty, overly negative, and desperate to win.

Yea, but Bush looked petty with the Swift Boat Veterans who smeared Kerry's military service.....Kerry should have done the same, not take the high road....

It could have flipped OH or FL.....

[Schiff for Senate]

I think it might have backfired and made Kerry seem more petty, overly negative, and desperate to win.

Yea, but Bush looked petty with the Swift Boat Veterans who smeared Kerry's military service.....Kerry should have done the same, not take the high road....

It could have flipped OH or FL.....

Wasn't the organisation not directly tried to Bush? So he had plausible deniability?

[Suburbia]

I think it might have backfired and made Kerry seem more petty, overly negative, and desperate to win.

Yea, but Bush looked petty with the Swift Boat Veterans who smeared Kerry's military service.....Kerry should have done the same, not take the high road....

It could have flipped OH or FL.....

Wasn't the organisation not directly tried to Bush? So he had plausible deniability?

I think it was a Rove theory......Kerry should have fought back against Bush and hard, but 2004 was a poisoned chalice anyway...Kerry would have probably lost to McCain or Romney in 2008....

[One Term Floridian]

I think it might have backfired and made Kerry seem more petty, overly negative, and desperate to win.

Yea, but Bush looked petty with the Swift Boat Veterans who smeared Kerry's military service.....Kerry should have done the same, not take the high road....

It could have flipped OH or FL.....

Wasn't the organisation not directly tried to Bush? So he had plausible deniability?

I think it was a Rove theory......Kerry should have fought back against Bush and hard, but 2004 was a poisoned chalice anyway...Kerry would have probably lost to McCain or Romney in 2008....

2004 was almost certainly a poisoned chalice, but W was definitely beatable in 2004 had Kerry responded more to the negative advertising and possibly picked a more effective running mate like Wesley Clark who perhaps could have been a good attack dog