Larry Gillespie – 3/26/08

This page was last updated on March 26, 2008.

Bush is no Lincoln; Larry Gillespie; Beaver County Times; March 26, 2008.

Mr. Gillespie’s letters have a history of being fact challenged. Examples are here and here. Mr. Gillespie’s facts in this letter are equally impressive.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Recently, President George Bush said “the Iraq mission is a success.”

[RWC] I performed both Google and Yahoo searches for this quote and received no hits.

“You can’t judge if something is a success until the end of an event. Only then can it be judged a success or failure.

“At a billion dollars a day, 4,000 dead, with many more maimed and wounded, what has been the benefit? Maybe we went to Iraq to keep the cost of oil down, but that hasn’t happened now, has it?”

[RWC] Ah, the “war for oil” claim again.

“Our resources of men and material are squandered, and to what purpose? It seems a strange definition of success.

“From Enron to Bear Stearns, from Iraq to Afghanistan to Pakistan, do Americans feel more secure today than yesterday?”

[RWC] Though I don’t blame his administration for it, the vast majority of Enron debacle happened during the Clinton administration. It was uncovered during the first several months of the Bush administration. Regarding Bear Stearns, what did the Bush administration have to do with that?

“While we are on the subject of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney has been quoted as saying that “George Bush is like Abraham Lincoln.”

[RWC] I performed both Google and Yahoo searches for this quote and received no hits.

“Sir, I have studied Lincoln, and I have studied Bush, and I must say that George Bush is no Abraham Lincoln.”

[RWC] “George Bush is no Abraham Lincoln.” No kidding. George Washington is the only other president I’d put in that category. FYI, it’s interesting Mr. Gillespie apparently doesn’t have a problem with the recent attempts to link Barack Obama and Mr. Lincoln. It appears to have started with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on the day of Mr. Obama’s misnamed “race speech” and spread to a Times editorial and at least one letter-to-the-editor.

If Mr. Gillespie “studied Bush” as he claimed, he needs to get better data sources.