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David Sanger

• November 23 -- Condoleezza Rice Not as "Bellicose" As Feared?
A second Bush administration, unrestrained by the caution of Colin Powell, will lead the United States into an unending series of confrontations with the world.

• November 17 -- Condoleezza Rice, "Hard-Line Hawk"
The Times emphasizes Condoleezza Rice's "hard-line" and "hawkish" views.

• November 11 -- No Lingering “Glow” Once the “Civil Rights Groups” Start Hammering
In the forthcoming confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales, the Times has found two sides. On one side are “conservatives” who find Gonzales is not “sufficiently hardline.” On the other are “Democrats” and “civil rights groups” who worry about the new pick’s tolerance for prison abuse.

• November 5 -- Will Bush Now Tone Down the Rhetoric?
David Sanger is unusually generous toward Bush in the afterglow of victory, but soon reverts to form: "One of the biggest questions hanging over his second term is whether he will tone down the rhetoric and actions that play so badly abroad."

• November 1 -- The Times Finally Checks Out Its Own Scoop
The Times finally questions ("Why is this coming out in the week before the election?") its suspiciously timed "scoop" on missing Iraq explosives -- on the back pages of the Saturday edition.

• October 29 -- Explosives Scoop Vindicated? The NYT Thinks So
"Ammo-gate" again on the front page, in a story highlighting unearthed footage showing the Army's 101st Airborne opening barrels and boxes of powder at al Qaqaa. The one videotape is apparently all the vindication the Times needs for its anti-Bush bombshell.

• October 27 -- Sanger Still Pushing Explosives Scoop
David Sanger tails Bush through the Midwest and manages to work in his "explosives" scoop.

• October 26 -- Times' "Explosive" Scoop: Bombshell or Politically Motivated Dud?
The Times trumpets two front-page stories blaming the Bush administration for letting almost 400 tons of powerful explosives disappear under its nose in Iraq. Grim news -- but is it true? An NBC News report suggests maybe not.

• October 21 -- Sanger Frames Bush's Foreign Policy Message
David Sanger frames Bush's foreign policy message as an attempt to change the subject: "It is artfully crafted to get his audiences to look beyond the daily headlines of beheadings and suicide bombers, of an insurgency that has defied American military might…."

• October 20 -- Bush's "Privatization Plan" for Social Security
The Times places a liberally loaded description on top of Bush's Social Security reform plan: "Mr. Bush rarely if ever discusses the costs of his privatization plan," and take on Bush over the flu vaccine fiasco.

• October 19 -- Loving the "Neoconservative" Label
David Sanger wonders if a second Bush term would "be marked by pre-emption on steroids, unilateralism in a silken glove" and manages to say "neoconservative" three times.

• October 19 -- Rebutting Bush So Kerry Doesn't Have To
David Sanger and Jodi Wilgoren accuse Bush of "a far more incendiary characterization" of Kerry and helpfully disputes Bush's characterizations of Kerry's positions.

• October 12 -- How About Those Pro-Kerry Polls?
Another campaign story embraces recent poll findings -- now that they show Kerry doing better: "But Democrats, buoyed by a week of developments that undercut Mr. Bush's claims of vigorous job growth and his main justification for invading Iraq, said they would not lose the momentum heading into the final debate."

• October 12 -- Bush's "Hang Tough" Decision Echoes Vietnam
David Sanger tries to make a stark campaign issue out of Bush's alleged refusal to admit to mistakes, asserting the decision "has come to look far riskier than it did in the flush of handing Iraq back to Iraqis….Bush's decision to hang tough has echoes of the strategy used by another president from Texas. In the 1968 campaign, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey began edging back from the Johnson Administration's plan to admit no fault with its policy in Vietnam."

• October 12 -- Bullying, Brazen Bush?
"Challenging Rest of the World With a New Order" parrots the usual charges of Bush the unilateralist: "It is a characterization of Mr. Bush's foreign policy style often heard around the world: bullying, unreceptive, brazen. The result, critics of this administration contend, has been a disastrous loss of international support, damage to American credibility, the sullying of America's image and a devastating war that has already taken more than 1,000 American lives."

• October 11 -- Inconvenient Victory for Pro-War Ally in Australia?
The Times plays down a pro-war Bush ally's victory in the Australian election -- but the defeat of Spain's pro-war PM in March was a front-page "Blow to Bush."

• October 8 -- Bush's Main Rationale for War Has "Unraveled"
"Mr. Kerry, emboldened by the report's unraveling of the administration's main rationale for going to war, shot back with his sharpest indictment yet…."

• October 7 -- Bush "Out of Touch" With Iraq Realities?
Piling on Bush's debate performance and setting up Democratic talking points.

• September 13 -- Kerry Vents to Times Reporter
John Kerry calls David Sanger and vents about Bush.

• September 8 -- NYT Clips Cheney's War on Terror Quote
A misleading headline tops a misleading front-page story by David Sanger and David Halbfinger on Cheney's recent remarks about the war on terror.

• August 27 -- Bush Bugs Times By Not Bashing Swift Boat Ads
Bush sits down for an interview with David Sanger and Elisabeth Bumiller and bugs them by refusing to specifically condemn the Swift Boat ads.

• August 18 -- Bush's "Simple Solutions" Made for a Rough Time In Iraq
David Sanger vouches for John Kerry's "nuanced" position.

• August 12 -- "Mocking" Bush Drowns Out Kerry's Foreign Policy "Nuance"
Kerry's admission he would still vote to give Bush war authority invites a David Sanger story with the loaded headline: "For Now, Bush's Mocking Drowns Out Kerry's Nuanced Explanation of His War Vote." Also: Where's the NYT on Kerry and Cambodia?

• August 11 -- Can Goss Boss the CIA?
Poisoning the well for Rep. Porter Goss, Bush's choice to head the CIA: "…his recent actions…have angered a number of senior C.I.A. officials, which could make it difficult for him to work with many of the holdovers from the Tenet era." Another piece intones: "Mr. Goss has engendered considerable ill will within the very organization he has been tapped to lead."

• July 22 -- Still Spinning the Berger Burglary
Eric Lichtblau and David Sanger work some anti-Bush spin into their front-page story on the Sandy Berger investigation: "…the campaign accused the White House of deliberately leaking news of the investigation and said that Vice President Dick Cheney was involved in strategies to divert attention from the Sept. 11 report to be issued Thursday." Since getting into legal hot water, Berger's apparently been demoted by the Times.

• July 13 -- Times Reporters Endorse Kerry?
It's no secret the Times will endorse John Kerry for president. But in an interview with the Times, Kerry suggests he's been endorsed by a couple of reporters as well.

• July 12 -- Say It Ain't So, Joe (Wilson)
The Senate intelligence report has new insight on what the U.S. knew about Saddam Hussein's attempt to acquire uranium from Africa--and Ambassador Joseph Wilson's lack of credibility. But the Times, which boosted Wilson, glosses over the finding. Not so the Washington Post.

• July 7 -- Have I Mentioned Abu Ghraib This Week?

• June 29 -- Hitler Reappears in Bush Ad?
The Kerry campaign complains about a Bush campaign ad, and reporter David Sanger jumps.

• June 29 -- Sanger Still Singing Blues on Bush and Iraq
Reporter David Sanger never hides his doubts about Bush and Iraq: “The so-far fruitless search for unconventional weapons--the primary justification for invading Iraq--undermined his credibility, making what Mr. Bush described as a war of necessity appear to have been one of choice.”

• June 18 -- Dick Cheney Takes On "Outrageous" NYT
David Sanger and Robin Toner's front-page story is headlined "Bush and Cheney Talk Strongly of Qaeda Links With Hussein." More accurate would have been "Cheney Castigates NYT." Then again, the vice president hasn't been too impressed with Times headlines lately.

• June 17 -- Doubting David Attacks Bush's Iraq Speech
David Sanger reports on a Bush speech and works in his own doubts about Iraq: "Mr. Bush focused on the best news he could find in the 14 days before the handover. He said that thousands of schools had reopened and that electricity had been restored, not mentioning that electricity was being generated far below the levels his own administration set as a goal." But Sanger leaves out a lot.

• June 4 -- Sanger's Thesaurus
David Sanger's analysis of the surprise resignation of C.I.A. Director George Tenet claims Bush sold the war in Iraq as an "immediate necessity." Hey, what happened to "imminent threat?"

• May 11 -- Abu Ghraib Photos Remind Timesman of Vietnam
David Sanger's Monday news analysis, "U.S. Must Find A Way to Move Past the Images," examines a horrific photo from Abu Ghraib prison and is reminded (of course) of Vietnam.

• April 14 -- "Political Peril" for Bush?
David Sanger's front-page analysis of Bush's Tuesday-night press conference raises the stakes for Bush: "Facing a moment of political peril unlike any in the more than one thousand days of his presidency…." Sanger also frets over Bush's refusal to admit mistakes.

• April 12 -- Where "PDB" Means "Pin Damage on Bush"
The Times uses the August 2001 "President's Daily Briefing" to hit Bush for allegedly missing clues to 9-11--despite the memo's lack of detail.

• April 9 -- Condi Not Contrite?
David Sanger seems annoyed Condi Rice didn't concede blame on the part of the Bush administration for 9-11: "She did not acknowledge failings…She also did not concede that the newly arrived Bush administration was part of that problem, or that it, too, underestimated what it confronted or was distracted by other issues like tax cuts, China and missile defense." He and reporter Philip Shenon also fail to provide context to a heated exchange between Rice and Democratic interrogator Richard Ben-Veniste.

• April 7 -- "Preventable" 9-11 Puts Rice on the Spot?
David Sanger and Philip Shenon again claim Condoleezza Rice is under pressure, since the 9-11 commission thinks the WTC attacks were preventable. But commission leaders have never pinned blame on Bush or Rice. Also, the "uranium from Niger" legend returns.

• April 5 -- The Times Still an Anti-Condi Conduit
Douglas Jehl and David Sanger again hold Condoleezza Rice up to a level of scrutiny that anti-Bush Richard Clarke managed to avoid: "Her task seemed to become even more difficult on Sunday, when the leaders of the commission said that it was likely to conclude that the Sept. 11 attacks were preventable." But the commissioners didn't blame Bush or Rice.

• April 2 -- Clarke Commended, Rice Fried
Philip Shenon and David Sanger--surprise--bolster Richard Clarke at the expense of Condoleezza Rice.

• April 2 -- Terror Reactions: "Upbeat" Bush, Somber Clinton
David Sanger writes: "It can be a bit jarring to move from the images of grisly American deaths to the invariably upbeat message of the Bush campaign…The contrast with some of his predecessors is notable….when American soldiers were killed in Somalia in an incident that many recalled on seeing the Falluja photographs, President Clinton declared that he was sending reinforcements." One contrast Sanger failed to mention--Clinton never visited the WTC after the 1993 terror attack.

• March 30 -- Sanger's Surprise
David Sanger, who's usually more interested in chipping at Bush's foreign policy credibility, talks to an intelligence official who calls Clarke's 9-11 memories into question.

• March 15 -- Pain in Spain for Bush
After the defeat of Spain's Bush-allied party, David Sanger's analysis carries this blunt headline: "Blow to Bush: Ally Rejected--Voters Clearly Reiterate Opposition to Iraq War." Sanger, who rarely misses a chance to portray Bush's unpopularity abroad over Iraq, writes up the results as an "electoral rebuke" to Bush.

• February 17 -- Bush's Costly Tax Cuts
David Sanger helpfully reminds readers of the deficit and pins it on Bush's tax cuts: "Mr. Bush said nothing of the long-term cost of making those cuts permanent. Neither the White House nor many in Congress want to dwell on additions to a deficit projected to hit $500 billion this year."

• January 21 -- War? What War?
David Sanger wonders if America is still at war.

• December 5 -- Bullying Bush Backs Down
David Sanger paints Bush's lifting of steel tariffs as akin to a bully wincing from being hit back: "For the first time in his nearly three years in office, the president, who has often reveled in the exercise of American power, finally met an international organization that had figured out how to hit back at the administration where it would hurt."

• November 20 -- A Bush "Setback" and More Nonsense on Niger
David Sanger personalizes the decision of an international nuclear watchdog group as a "setback" for Bush and issues a new version of the old "Uranium from Niger" canard.

• November 18 -- Sanger Sings the Blues over Bush in Iraq
David Sanger on Bush and Iraq: Hubris, electoral cynicism and floundering.

• October 24 -- Why the World Still Hates Bush
David Sanger's dispatch from Canberra again features Bush as a despised bubble-boy: "Even some of Mr. Bush's aides concede that Mr. Bush has only begun to discover the gap between the picture of a benign superpower that he sees, and the far more calculating, self-interested, anti-Muslim America the world perceives as he speeds by behind dark windows."

• October 20 -- David Sanger Remembers the Maine
The Times has often linked the Iraq war with the Vietnam "quagmire," but David Sanger reaches back to the Spanish-American War: "Some of [Bush's] critics have argued that the justification for invading Iraq bore a resemblance to the rationale the United States used to begin that war in 1898, citing evidence, discounted as flimsy, that the battleship Maine had been deliberately blown up in Cuba by Spanish forces."

• October 15 -- Incurious George
Bush has been criticized by the media for his leisurely vacations in Crawford, TX. Now David Sanger seems to think he's not taking enough time to see the world: "Past presidents have taken in the restaurants of Sydney or the wonders of the country. Not Mr. Bush."

• September 23 -- The Times Marks Its Own “May Day”
May 1, the date Bush declared an end to active military operations in Iraq, and one that lives in infamy at the Times.