Taking It To The Streets

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Why Iraq? Why now? Why not? President Bush laid out his answers to those questions last night as he restated his case for U.S. action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Speaking before a crowd in Cincinnati, Ohio. Deliberately far removed from the austerity of the Oval Office, President Bush described Saddam Hussein as a “murderous tyrant” and used images of a nuclear holocaust to convince ordinary Americans that the threat posed by Iraq is “simply too great” to ignore. The speech comes at a time when Iraq is dominating debate in Congress and at the U.N. Security Council, but remains low on the list of concerns to American citizens.

The president and the people, fear, war and public opinion.

Guests:

Gail Chaddock, Congressional reporter, Christian Science Monitor

Paul Anger, editor and vice president, Des Moines Register

Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland