“Within the United States, there is growing challenge to President Bush about the conduct of the war and also opposition to the war. So our reports about civilian casualties here, about he resistance of the Iraqi forces are going back to the United States. It helps those who oppose the war and it challenges the policy to develop their arguments.
“One other point, I’ve been mainly in Baghdad in the past few weeks, but clearly this is a city that is disciplined, the population is responsive to the government’s requirements of discipline and my Iraqi friends tell me there’s a growing sense of nationalism and resistance to what the United States and Britain is doing....
“Clearly, the American war planners misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces. And I personally do not understand how that happened, because I’ve been here many times and in my commentaries on television I would tell the Americans about the determination of the Iraqi forces, the determination of the government, and the willingness to fight for their country. But me, and others who felt the same way, were not listened to by the Bush administration.
“That is why now America is re-appraising the battlefield, delaying the war, maybe a week, and re-writing the war plan. The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance; now they’re trying to write another war plan.”

“There’s not a good deal for Iraqis to be happy about at the moment. Life is still very chaotic, beset by violence in many cases, huge shortages. In some respects, Iraqis keep telling us life is not as stable for them as it was when Saddam Hussein was in power.”

Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore: “What happened to the search for Osama bin Laden?”

Bob Costas: “Obviously they’re pursuing Osama bin Laden as we speak.”

Moore: “Really? You believe that?”

Costas: “Yes.”

Moore: “You do believe that?”

Costas: “Sure. And if they could find him, and perhaps they eventually will, they’d be gratified by that.”

Moore: “You don’t think they [the U.S. government] know where he is, huh?”

Bob Costas (astonished): “You think they know where Osama bin Laden is and it’s hands off?”

Moore: “Absolutely, absolutely.”

Costas: “Why?”

Moore: “Because he’s funded by their friends in Saudi Arabia! He’s back living with his sponsors, his benefactors. Do you think that Osama bin Laden planned 9/11 from a cave in Afghanistan? I can’t get a cell signal from here to Queens! Alright, I mean, come on, let’s get real about this. The guy has been on dialysis for two years. He’s got failing kidneys. He wasn’t in a cave in Afghanistan-”

Costas: “You think he’s in Saudi Arabia?”

Moore: “Absolutely.”

Costas: “Not Afghanistan, not Pakistan?”

Moore: “Well, could be Pakistan but it’s, he’s under the protective watch of those who have said put stop to this because-”

Costas: “Including, at least by extension, the United States? He’s under the protective watch of the United States?”

Moore: “I think no, I think the United States, I think our government knows where he is and I don’t think we’re going to be capturing him or killing him any time soon.”

“Can I say one last thing? I haven’t even been drinking, at all. But, you know, being a man, I’ve got to say that we’ve got this guy in the White House who thinks he is a man, you know, who projects himself as a man because he has a certain masculinity, and he’s a good old boy, and he used to drink, and he knows how to shoot a gun and how to drive a pickup truck, et cetera, like that. That’s not the definition of a man, God dammit!”

Lesley Stahl: “The Powell Doctrine in military terms is that you throw a massive force, if you’re going to go to war, make it huge. There are now criticisms, we’re beginning to hear, that this force isn’t massive enough.”

Colin Powell: “It’s nonsense....The United States armed forces, with our coalition partners -- the British, principally, and the Australians -- have gone 300 miles deep into Iraq in a period of five days. That is a heck of an achievement.”

Stahl: “Yeah, but our, the rear is exposed.”

Powell: “It’s not. Exposed to what? Exposed to small-“

Stahl: “Exposed to Fedayeen, exposed-”

Powell: “Fine. So? We’ll get them in due course...”

Stahl: “Are you saying you’re not worried or concerned about guerilla warfare?”

Powell: “Of course we are and that, and we’re trained to handle this. But this chatter for the last 24 hours that everything is coming apart because on Sunday we took a few casualties. The casualties for this operation have been low. You don’t want to slow your advance to go into a particular city and spend all your time routing out people that you will get in due course. They are not threatening the advance.”

Stahl: “But you can’t get your supplies, well you can’t-”

Powell: “Who says?”

Stahl: “-can’t get the humanitarian-”

Powell: “Who says?”

Stahl: “-well you can’t get the humanitarian aid in there.”

Powell: “...The situation will change rapidly.”

Stahl: “How did we get to a place where much of the world thinks that George Bush is more evil than Saddam Hussein?”

“The President’s tax cut is beginning to show up. Will three extra dollars stimulate the national economy?”

“What must it be like to live in Rush Limbaugh’s world? A world where when anyone other than conservative, white men attempts to do anything or enter any profession, be it business, politics, art or sports, the only reason they’re allowed entry or, incredibly, attain excellence is because the standard was lowered. Be they liberals, people of color, women, the poor or anyone with an accent. So as Rush’s world has steadily crumbled, it’s no wonder he allegedly had to turn to prescription pain killers....Edgy, controversial, brilliant. What a way to shake up intelligent sports commentary. Hitler would have killed in talk radio. He was edgy, too.”

Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan: “I think the media and the Democratic Party spent the 1990s saying, ‘None of this matters. You can do anything to women. We’ll beat ‘em up, we’ll put private eyes on them-’”

Time columnist Joe Klein: “Wait a second!...You can beat ‘em up?”

Noonan: “As a matter of fact Bill Clinton was literally charged with that. He was charged with worse things than, than Arnold [Schwarzenegger].”

Klein: “He was charged with those things by lunatics. He was never legally charged with that.”

Noonan: “Whoa! He was charged by Juanita Broaddrick. I don’t think that it’s fair to call her a lunatic.”

Klein: “That? Yes, I do think that she was an extremist.”

Host Cal Thomas: “Many conservatives and religious people in this country feel that much of the media, especially the broadcast media, is biased or at least insensitive to their points of view...”

CBS’s Lesley Stahl: “I’m going to attack the premise of the question, because I think today you have broadcast journalists who are avowedly conservative....The voices that are being heard in broadcast media today, are far more -- the ones who are being heard -- are far more likely to be on the right and avowedly so, and therefore, more -- almost stridently so, than what you’re talking about.”

Thomas: “Can you name a conservative journalist at CBS News?”

Stahl: “Well, I don’t know of anybody’s political bias at CBS News. I really think we try very hard to get any opinion that we have out of our stories, and most of our stories are balanced.”

“I know you keep a running log of your every waking activity. There’s an article in the Style section of the Washington Post this morning. It says you’ve logged 26 years of personal minutiae, filling 4,400 two-by-three inch notebooks, color-coded by season. An example: ‘12:17' -- this is when you made the announcement -- ‘Ascend stage, stumble, regain balance; 12:18: Applause, ‘Where the Streets Have No Name,’ plays (U2); 12:19: Clap, wave; 12:20: Adjust tie (red, white stripes); 12:21: Double thumbs up; 12:22: Sing along with National Anthem, right hand on heart.’ What, what do you do this for?!”