NEWS ANALYSIS
Vigil threatens to put president in tough spot
Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Among the criticism of Sheehan is that she already met with Bush, about two months after her son was killed, and emerged from that meeting saying positive things about the president.
"I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith,'' she said in a 2004 interview with the Vacaville Reporter.
The comments were reprinted this week on the Drudge Report, an Internet site popular with conservatives, and were the basis of many attacks on talk radio, television and blogs accusing her of changing her story.
However, Drudge did not report everything Sheehan told the newspaper.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/08/11/MNGVCE66FJ1.DTL"We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled,'' she also was quoted as saying. "The president has changed his reason for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached.''In a note to readers Wednesday, Diane Barney, editor of the Vacaville Reporter, took issue with the suggestion that Sheehan has changed her story. "We don't think there has been a dramatic turnaround. Clearly, Cindy Sheehan's outrage was festering even then,'' Barney wrote.