Bush, Sinclair, & the Numbers

0: number of times George W. Bush mentioned Osama bin Laden in his acceptance speech.

0: Number of times Bush mentioned Osama bin Laden in his three State of the Union addresses.

83: Number of times Bush mentioned Saddam, Iraq, or regime (as in change) in his three State of the Union addresses.

$3m: Amount the White House was willing to grant the 9/11 Commission to investigate the 11 September attacks.

$50m: Amount granted to the commission that looked into the Columbia space shuttle crash.

1972: Year that Bush walked away from his pilot duties in the Texas National Guard, Nearly two years before his six-year obligation was up.

$3,500: Reward a group of veterans offered in 2000 for anyone who could confirm Bush's Alabama guard service.

600-700: Number of guardsmen who were in Bush's unit during that period.

0: Number of guardsmen from that period who came forward with information about Bush's guard service.

0: Number of minutes that President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the assistant Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, the former chairman of the Defence Policy Board, Richard Perle, and the White House Chief of Staff, Karl Rove ­ the main proponents of the war in Iraq ­served in combat (combined).
1983: The year in which Donald Rumsfeld, Ronald Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East, gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs as a gift.

2.5: Number of hours after Rumsfeld learnt that Osama bin Laden was a suspect in the 11 September attacks that he brought up reasons to "hit" Iraq.

40,000: Number of soldiers in Iraq seven months after start of the war still without Interceptor vests, designed to stop a round from an AK-47.

75: Percentage of Americans unaffected by Bush's sweeping 2003 cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.

49: Percentage of Americans in April 2004 who found that their taxes had actually gone up since Bush took office.

$7.22tr: US national debt by mid-2004.

2.3m: Number of Americans who lost their jobs during first three Years of the Bush administration.

1928: Year that the last president before Bush to preside over a net loss of jobs was elected.

22m: Number of jobs gained during Clinton's eight years in office.

34.6m: Number of Americans living below the poverty line (1 in 8 of the population).

6.8m: Number of people in the workforce but still classified as poor.

35m: Number of Americans that the government defines as "food insecure," in other words, hungry.

40: Percentage of wealth in the United States held by the richest 1 per cent of the population.

18: Percentage of wealth in Britain held by the richest 1 per cent of the population.

43.6m: Number of Americans without health insurance by the end of 2002 (more than 15 per cent of the population).

62: Number of members of Cheney's 63-person Energy Task Force with ties to corporate energy interests.

0: Number of environmentalists asked to attend Cheney's Energy Task Force meetings.

24,000: Estimated number of premature deaths that will occur under Bush's Clear Skies initiative.

$3.8bn: Amount in the Superfund trust fund for toxic site clean-ups in 1995, the Year "polluter pays" fees expired.

$0m: Amount of uncommitted dollars in the Superfund trust fund for toxic site clean-ups in 2003.

$66bn: Amount the United States spent on international aid and diplomacy in 1949.

$23.8bn: Amount the United States spent on international aid and diplomacy in 2002.

500: Number of days Bush has spent all or part of his time away from the White House at his
ranch in Crawford, Texas, his parents' retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, or Camp David as of 1 April 2004.

1023 and counting: Number of American servicemen and servicewomen killed in Iraq.

0: Number of memorial services attended by George W. Bush

$50,000: Amount of the donations made to the Republican National Committee by Frederick Smith, Director of Sinclair Broadcasting.

$63,234: Amount of the total donations by Sinclair Broadcasting executives to Republicans in the 2004 election cycle.

$0: Amount of the total donations by Sinclair Broadcasting executives to Democrats in the 2004 election cycle.

89: percent of Sinclair $2.3 million political donations since 1996 that have gone to Republicans

8: Number of times Republican candidate (now Maryland Governor) Robert Ehrlich received unreported “discounted” campaign trips on helicopter owned by Sinclair Broadcasting.

2001: Year when Robert Ehrlich petitioned the FCC on Sinclair Broadcasting’s behalf.

9: Number of “Point” commentaries entirely devoted to criticizing John Kerry in the last two weeks.

1972: Year the most recent events mentioned by Mark Hyman in his criticism of John Kerry took place.

0: Number of positive arguments for Bush’s reelection made by Mark Hyman in the last month.

And that’s The Counterpoint.

Most of the Bush numbers come courtesy of Graydon Carter’s article that appeared in The Independent. You can see the entire “Bush by the numbers” list here.