This mud-slinging political campaign is certainly giving journalists around the country material to write about the last few months. Accusations and finger pointing have been the norm, especially against President Bush. This is normal for an incumbent president, though not to the degree we have seen.

The latest major accusation I have seen which has just emerged these past few weeks, our “October surprise,” is Kerry’s accusations against Bush in regards to “missing weapons.”

The day had started with a New York Times article stating that 380 tons of “highly explosive material” went missing in Iraq, and Kerry’s campaign picked it up and ran with it.

Senator Kerry blasted the Bush administration for its failure to “guard those stockpiles.” “This is one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration,” Kerry said.

However, by the time of the evening newscast, NBC had set the record straight — that the material went missing 18 months ago, before the U.S. invaded Iraq.

An NBC News crew had been embedded with troops moved in to secure the Al-Qaqaa weapons facility on April 10, 2003, one day after the liberation of Iraq.

“The 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives were already missing back in April 10, 2003–when U.S. troops arrived at the installation south of Baghdad!”

While this error will probably make Kerry look like a fool in the end, he refuses to retract his argument, arguing that NBC is covering for Bush.

NYT is still running the story, trying to protect Kerry’s campaign no doubt, and Kerry is still preaching the story in every campaign speech.

There are a few points that stick out to me:

First, I doubt that this information JUST became available. The evidence is dated from 2001 through 2003, and I find it highly unlikely that it was a new development that only just came to their attention.

Kerry was saving this story for last, a sucker punch. In a debate where the president could refute his claims and provide evidence to the contrary to Kerry’s face, it would never stand.

Second, in claiming that failing to secure these weapons soon enough as a “massive failure,” is Kerry claiming that we should have invaded sooner? Whatever happened to “we should have waited for a better coalition,” or we “never should have divided our focus from Afghanistan and Bin Laden?”

Also, how about the Democrat’s, and Senator Kerry’s, claims that President Bush had lied to the American people when he claimed Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction, using it as a justification to wrongly invade Iraq?

By accusing Bush of failing to secure highly dangerous weapons, “capable of attacks in Iraq and more terrorist bombings,” they are admitting there were and are weapons that we needed to fear and protect ourselves from in Iraq.

Third, Kerry’s finger pointing against President Bush of “never admitting failures'” has just blown up in his face.

Kerry-Edwards senior advisor Joe Lockhart claims that the NBC report was “the latest pathetic excuse from an administration that never admits a mistake, no matter how disastrous.”

However, it is clear to me that in this case, it isn’t Bush who is in fault of not admitting a mistake. Democrats supporting Kerry are throwing out eye- witness accounts and journalistic reports, calling them a “Bush cover-up.”

Instead of printing a retraction an admitting that he got his facts wrong, the Senator claims that this is a Bush cover-up. Please. Can you say ‘conspiracy theorist’?

In contrast, I distinctly remember from the first presidential debate, President Bush admitting regretfully his miscalculation in the war in Iraq, saying that he had invaded too fast, leaving pockets of resistance in hiding that are only just now striking back.

Who’s the one not admitting a mistake? Senator Kerry.

This event shows Kerry’s hypocrisy, even more than his Democratic preaching of ‘take from the rich and give to the poor’ while being a billionaire and owning, I believe seven, mansions.

Maybe he should set an example and sell one of them, and donate it to working families. Just a thought.

Kerry has lied and manipulated already, just in his campaign, and I don’t see where he stands on Iraq.

He claims he would be a “fresh start.” Does that mean he’s going to pull our troops without finishing reconstruction and stability in the Iraqi government?

That would be incredibly dangerous. An even more brutal regime would more than likely take power, an even greater threat to us.

John Kerry is not a man I want to see as president. I’m scared to see what will happen.

You can e-mail Jessica at [email protected].