Bush Emphasizes Iraq Mission, Elections

By Don Gonyea

Published January 26, 2005 at 12:00 AM EST

In the first press conference of his second term, President Bush says the nation would mourn the losses of life in Iraq, but emphasized the long-term goal there of spreading freedom.

The president took questions for 45 minutes in the White House briefing room, touching on the upcoming Iraq elections and on domestic issues such as the budget deficit and the long-term financing of Social Security.

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Don Gonyea

You're most likely to find NPR's Don Gonyea on the road, in some battleground state looking for voters to sit with him at the local lunch spot, the VFW or union hall, at a campaign rally, or at their kitchen tables to tell him what's on their minds. Through countless such conversations over the course of the year, he gets a ground-level view of American elections. Gonyea is NPR's National Political Correspondent, a position he has held since 2010. His reports can be heard on all NPR News programs and at NPR.org. To hear his sound-rich stories is akin to riding in the passenger seat of his rental car, traveling through Iowa or South Carolina or Michigan or wherever, right along with him.

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