CNN has the video up now.
Click on “Special Election Focuses on Iraqi War“.

Paul came off very well. President Bush speaking up on Iraq strangely seems to be helping Hackett. Now when they are looking for a contrasting voice, there he is.

One thing that’s interesting about the piece is that Vice-President Cheney complains about monday morning quarterbacks. That’s one thing about Hackett… when it comes to Iraq, Paul Hackett actually is a quarterback.

I can hear the cries of liberal biased now. They might ring true if Jean Schmidt had ANYTHING constructive to say on Iraq. Since the story was about Iraq and all she does is parrot the mantra support the president, support the troops, there’s no story there.

In order to be treated as a leader you have to lead. On Iraq all that Schmidt is offering to people is more of the same.

Do you have to be a Democrat to fight against fraud? Do you have to be a Democrat to speak out about mismanagement of the VA? Do you have to be a Democrat to talk honestly about what’s going on in Iraq?

Truman made a name for himself fighting waste and corruption during WWII, and that was during a Democratic administration. Obviously, Ms. Schmidt is no Harry Truman.

ADDED: Ann Driscoll has her take.

TRANSCRIPT:

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The small crowds tell you it’s summer and that Paul Hackett is the underdog a Democrat running for Congress in Republican territory. A Marine just back from Iraq, who says it is time for the president to tell it straight.

PAUL HACKETT (D), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: And if you overplay the success and then, as the word gets out exactly what’s going on, then it looks like politicians aren’t being honest with us.

KING: Hackett saw duty in Fallujah and Ramadi, was discharged in March and plunged immediately into a special election for a vacant Congressional seat in southern Ohio. He calls himself an amateur politician, but doesn’t hesitate to suggest, by support for the president’s handling in Iraq is in decline.

HACKETT: That’s the problem, the disconnect. Whoa, whoa, whoa, you told us a year-and-a-half ago: Mission accomplished. It’s a hell of a lot worse there today

KING: The president’s decision to speak to the nation in primetime surrounded by troops at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, is part of an urgent White House effort to rebuilt support.

SCOTT REED, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: In the last 60 days there has been a steady drip, drip, drip, of bad news coming out of Iraq every night; coming into your living room every night; when you talk about this at the dinner table with your families. Republicans and Democrats are nervous.

KING: senior Bush aides insist the problem is one of communication, not policy. Time spent on Social Security, for example, the White House says, allowed Iraq policy critics more say.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The fact of the matter is: The town’s got a lot of people in it who are armchair quarterbacks or who like to comment on the passing scene.

KING: So, one element of the new strategy is to be more aggressive in answering the critics, but the administration is also recalibrating it’s message.

Gone: Talk from the vice-president of an insurgency in its last throes. Now: The defense secretary soberly warns the fighting could last years.

HACKETT: The American people want to have confidence in their leadership. They want to believe in their leadership and I think that’s the challenge that President Bush has.

KING: Ohio’s second Congressional district is small-town conservative country. The president won 64 percent of the vote here and Republican candidate Jean Schmidt dismisses any talk of wavering support for the war.

JEAN SCHMIDT (R), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: And southern Ohio believes in this president as I do, and his agenda, especially his agenda with this war.

KING: It’s true, searching for votes here can be lonely work for a Democrat, but in the basement of a county courthouse, Hackett is told of a Republican convert.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He’s so opposed to the war in Iraq that he was going to vote Democratic this time.

HACKETT: Well, bless him.

KING: Jay Purdy did a tour with the Marines in Vietnam. A Christian conservative and two-time Bush voter, disillusioned over Iraq. JAY PURDY, 2ND DISTRICT VOTER: It’s appearing to me that it’s: Kind of make it up as we go. And I don’t know that, that’s a good plan for a military action.

KING: Summer seems more a time for baseball than big presidential speeches. This one necessary, though, because even in places where patriotism runs deep, support for the troops doesn’t mean there aren’t questions for the commander in chief.

John King, CNN, Ripley, Ohio.