Rove to Kerry: Show Me the Numbers

John,

In the Vice Presidential debate, Dick Cheney tried to trump John with his apparent newfound empathy for Iraqi lives. When John repeated the "90%" cost sound bite that you so successfully used during your debate, Dick came back with a new context which challenged John's assertions (i.e., American casualties are "only" at 50%).

This was a very Rovian move on their part. If the facts don't help their campaign, they simply change the context and call you a misleader. Brilliant.

Well, it's a good thing you have your own "Karl Rove," because we're going to out-Rove them. You see, Dick has opened up the door for talking about Iraqi deaths, and we need to walk through that door he opened, and exploit the fact that now we're going to debate how many American deaths there are, and how many deaths total there are:

"When talking about the price we've paid for this poorly planned war, Dick Cheney tried to correct my running mate during the debate. While John Edwards claimed, correctly, that we have taken 90% of the coalition cost and casualties, Dick Cheney said that my running mate was 'dead wrong.'

Well, I'm glad Dick Cheney is finally willing to talk about the dead and the death tolls of the war that he and President Bush have dragged America into.

President Bush, if we are so dead wrong with our facts about the cost of American lives in Iraq, please let us know where we are wrong. By our counting -- and this is the official count from your administration -- over one-thousand American soldiers have died, and that does not count the beheadings of American contractors, nor does it count the number of Iraqi casualties. All other countries involved in Iraq have suffered 138 casualties combined.

Now, I'm no accountant, but this looks like 90% to me. I'd really like to know the fuzzy math you're using to try to again mislead America into believing that we have less than one thousand and sixty-four dead soldiers.

I can only imagine how many less casualties we would have had if this administration had only understood what they were getting themselves into. Downplaying dead Americans is just another example of failing the American test -- and the global test -- of leadership."

Yes, we're going to use the 'global test' again as a strong suit. Remember, take a catch phrase and turn it against them.

Keep on reminding America: "W" fails tests, displays a history of abuse, and has a bad habit of misleading America.