September 30, 2004
Hot debate action!
Llllllllllllllllllet's get ready to rrrrrrrrrrrrummmmmmbbbbbbblllllllle!!!!!!!
LEHRER: 90 seconds! Places people! Let's put on the best damn drag version of 1776 we can!
Wait, wait, wait. You lost me, Jim. Yellow means what now?
Bush. Heh-heh. He's a teenie guy. Heh-heh.
Hmm. Not thirty seconds into it and he's already smirking up a storm.
Ooh. Kerry should not stick his tongue out when he's taking a drink of water. That's the debate! He lost! He stuck his tongue out! Turn off the mikes! Send everyone home!
Bush will now have 90 seconds to see how many times he can say "free." GO!
John's hitting hard on the Iraq mistake. Good to see. And, hey, there's a name we haven't heard a lot about - Osama bin Laden. Whatever happened to that guy?
"Of course we're after Saddam Hussein... uh... bin Laden..."
Paging Dr. Freud. Dr. Freud to the white courtesy phone.
BUSH: "Steadfast. Resolved. Light. Refreshing. Flavorful. And that's what I believe. That's my plan."
KERRY: "The president has not spent money on X, Y and Z."
BUSH: "I spend money. I spend money on lots of things."
BUSH: "I wake up every day thinking about how to protect America. I work with FBI Director Mueller. He comes to my office. Some times we build a little fort using the cushions from the couch. Some times we have PB&Js with the crust cut off. So... justice. Freedom. Uh..."
Hey, hey, hey, Senator. Now, Bush has also been out there when he hasn't known what's around the corner. Sure, he was driving drunk, but...
Good line from Kerry about how it's a little more important that someone mislead than misspoke.
BUSH: "That's totally absurd. When he says we don't have a full and complete alliance, he denigrates our tiny and flimsy alliance. And may I just add that I'm optimistic in the face of all contrary evidence. That's the kind of guy I am. I don't think it helps when people make suggestions about how to do something better."
FINISH HIM! FIN-ISH HIIIIIIIMMMMMM!!!
Man, Bush is just super smirky tonight. Did someone put lemonade in his glass instead of water?
KERRY: "My position then was X and it is now X. All those statements are consistent with X."
BUSH: "He changes positions!"
BUSH: "I told her after we prayed and teared up and laughed some... that there's plenty more nitrous oxide in the canister."
KERRY: "Here's how I'd fix Iraq...."
BUSH: "He changes positions!" (One message, all the time.) "How can the troops follow him when he has all these suggestions about how to do things better?!"
Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Lehrer and the Iraq Experience!
So... Bush's primary message here is either that he shouldn't have to face an election opponent while Iraq is all fucked up or he should only have to face an opponent who thinks exactly what he thinks.
And THIS is the guy who is going to bring DEMOCRACY somewhere?
Hey, someone finally told Bush that Saddam Hussein did not attack us on 9/11! Wow, how do you think he'll handle the news?
Hey, he knew that! Huh. It sure didn't look like he knew that...
BUSH: Uh... errrr... uh... let me... um... just throw up in my shoe for a second... OK. Security. Liberty. Freedom. Terrorists on the run. Making progress. Oh! And he changes positions!
YES! WE HAVE "NUKULAR!"
"Iranian moolahs?" Is that the new Iranian currency? I don't know. Maybe it's really pronounced that way.
LEHRER: Let's talk about Darfur...
BUSH & KERRY: No, let's talk about Iran.
LEHRER: President Bush, what do you think about Senator Kerry's character?
BUSH: Oh, blah, blah, blah, platitude, blah, blah, both have hot daughters, blah, blah, Yale, blah, blah.... but he changes his positions!
BUSH: We busted a Pakistani proliferator who could have given North Korea nukular weapons. Sure, we totally fucked up everything else and they got them anyway, but, you know, I'm a glass is half full kind of guy.
Um, is Lehrer trying to start a fight with that "truth" thing?
LEHRER: President Bush, would you like a free punch?
So, in summing up:
KERRY: "These are the differences between President Bush and myself. This is what I would do differently. I believe my positions are more aligned with the beliefs that made this nation great."
BUSH: "He changes his opinions!"
Of course the one part that Bush nailed was the scripted ending. Go figure. Other than that, Kerry by a mile.
I don't have the stomach to watch the post-game analysis or, worse, the CSPAN callers. But I don't think there's any conclusion other than that Kerry won hands down. Kerry stayed on the attack but didn't come off as angry or mean. Bush avoided specifics in most cases and the only thing he could come up with was "He changes his positions!"
'Cept he didn't change his position about what you're talking about and, if he had, it wouldn't have been as bad as what you did. His complaint about mixed messages will only sell with his base because it just doesn't make any sense. It's whiny and petulant to say "Stop criticizing meeeee!"
Let the spin begin, though. It'll be interesting to see how they try to claim victory after that.
Posted by John at September 30, 2004 05:59 PM | TrackBack