Thursday, October 14, 2004

The Final Debate

Was largely a downer; Kerry was a bit rote and preachy, tho I think largely effective, while Bush looked like a maniac and yet had his strongest performance of the three. Did Barbara sit W. in the corner all day for punishment after the last debate? He looked contrite and chastened, but somehow the veneer kept cracking and the arrogant overly-confident guy who Jesus selected to be our president kept creeping out.

Is being gay a choice? Bush: "I don't know, but we should be tolerant." Kerry: "*tortured legalese designed to ensure I don't alienate those red-state voters who make this their litmus test*"

BOTH candidates were simply lying: Bush obviously believes homosexuality is a choice and that all gays are damned to hell and their behavior shouldn't be tolerated in America. Kerry I'm pretty sure is FOR gay marriage but can't say so because it'll cost him in Colorado, Nevada, Pennsyltucky, WVa, and he can't afford to say what he actually believes. At least he said people were born gay. At any rate, both answers to this question made me want to wretch.

The media so far are giving Kerry a pretty solid victory, while acknowledging that Bush held his own. There are two things which are being harped on, and public perception of these debate snippets will shift through the weekend as various news outlets spin and filter them:

Kerry's "outing" of Cheney's already out daughter. The Right is crying foul on this, with Lynn Cheney decrying this as a "concerned mother" worried about her daughter's feelings. Also, the Right (typically anti-PC) is trying to use PC culture weapons against Kerry here, which is absurd. I think Kerry had his heart in the right place, and was trying to point out that the Right can't blame parenting or a lack of "family values" for homosexuality without condemning Dick Cheney--a risky move, and I'm not sure how this will play out.

Bush saying "I don't think I ever said I didn't worry about Osama bin Laden. That's what you'd call a Exazzurayshun." Several of the networks last night actually pulled up the March 13th, 2002 press conference where Bush said precisely that and played it:

QUESTION: Do you believe the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead of alive?

BUSH: As I say, we hadn't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, you know, again, I don't know where he is.

I'll repeat what I said: I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.


Of course, to be fair to Bush, he was pointing out that OBL was likely by that time unable to do much, since he was on the run and unable to command anyone--in other words, he'd been reduced to a "nuisance," and so was not a priority. Funny how Kerry says reducing terrorism to a "nuisance" is something we should worry about.

Here's my take on Kerry: he's bOring, but he's competent. He's not going to fire anyone up about anything. I NEED a bOring president, someone who shows up for work and who's uncontroversial and who doesn't push us out to the extremes. Kerry won't do so. He may even take us back a bit from the lunatic fringe we find ouselves on. I need a non-nuisance president for once, someone I can ignore. How's that for an effective slogan? Vote Kerry. He's someone we can ignore! or, John Kerry--Less of a Nuisance.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The thing that keeps getting ignored that I'm all fired up about was the question about jobs.
Bush's answer to outsourcing? Community college educations for all! That's the answer! The only people being laid off are the dummies without no edumacation!

Anonymous said...

Bush definitely lost this debate on all the harping on his underfunded, unrealistic "no child" program. "It will solve everything - just you wait & see!!" What an idiot.

I was appalled at Bush's remark that he wanted to promote a "culture of life" in this country. I'll bet he's had one of those old-fashioned huge electrical switches installed in an Oval Office closet. He can use it to signal the start of an execution back in Texas. I'm sure he gets a kick out of that. How many civilians have we butchered in Iraq?

His head's neck-deep up his ass.

Geoff said...

Culture of Life. Remember when he was Gov of Texas and he mimicked what that woman on death row would say if she could talk to him? "Wah, please don't kill me," in a pathetic little whiney voice, all the while wearing that stupid smirk. ARGH! How Presidential is that!? And yet people love that shit.

Re: the community college foolishness--I recall Clinton saying the same thing in a debate. Jobs disappearing? College credits are the answer!

Anonymous said...

That's right - Clinton did say that. Things have changed a bit since then, though. Now tech service and design jobs are going offshore, putting the lie to the mantra that "white collar" work will grow in the usa with globalisation. So computer programming skills picked up at the local com. college aren't as marketable now.

The title of Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program was probably inspired by Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" series. Before long, he should start writing a "Right Behind" series, just to balance things out.....

Geoff said...

Hey, I like it. Rapture as education policy! We'll make sure no child is "left behind" because they'll have faith-based creationist lesson plans and Under God in every text and the Ten Commandments posted all over the place. They'll be sure to ascend, and those pesky sub-par math and science skills won't matter much when they're singing in the heavenly host.

Oh, and a copy of Bill O'Reilly's new kid's book in each locker.