Ex-Bush supporter endorses Kerry [View All]

[leftchick]

http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=85466


WASHINGTON — Battling attacks on presidential candidate John Kerry’s war record, Democrats today will begin running a television ad in Oregon and 20 other states featuring former Republican and retired Air Force Gen. Merrill McPeak of Oregon.

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In the ad, which was filmed Thursday, McPeak says that he endorsed Bush in 2000 but is backing Kerry now.

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McPeak, the Air Force chief of staff under the first President Bush and President Clinton, told reporters Friday that he had been impressed with Kerry’s toughness and integrity in his official dealings with him through the years.

Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, would not comment about the McPeak ad.

McPeak said he broke with the president regarding the war in Iraq.

“What I’m against is amateur hour (in Iraq) — the sloppiness in the postwar phase,” he said