Friday, October 01, 2004
Wolcott
Link:
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Since then Bush has been wheeled out into forums where no one can dare question or contradict his majesty, where he can lean forward and repeat ad nauseam his patented soundbites. Last night I believe we saw the ugly comeback of the private face of Bush--the irritable expressions he flashes subordinates when he's presented with information he doesn't like or feels someone's taken up too much of his time or is pressed to explain himself to people he shouldn't have to explain himself to because he's the president and fuck you. The notion that Bush is "likeable" has always been laughable. It takes a Washington pundit to be that dumb. He's an angry, spoiled, resentful little big man--I use "little big man" in the Reichian sense of a small personality who puffs himself up to look big through bluster and swagger but remains a scheming coward inside--and next to a genuinely big man like Kerry, shrunk before the camera's eyes.
Wuuuuuhhhh?
I know Saletan is using a literary device here, with "we" being generic "Amurikan people," but still, what the hell?
(thanks to apophenia)
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This time, however, Kerry isn't raising the question. His opponent, the president of the United States, is raising it. Why? Because Iraq is different from Vietnam. We were attacked on 9/11. We thought Saddam Hussein was behind it. We thought Iraq posed the next threat. We don't want to believe that we were wrong, that we've committed $200 billion and sacrificed more than 1,000 American lives in error. We can't imagine asking thousands more to die for a mistake.
(thanks to apophenia)
America Can't Afford to Be Safe From Terrorists
Once we move away from the jokey stuff, the most stunning statement by Bush last night was:
Bush chose the wrong debate to use that line. Was Kerry about incresing welfare payments? Free health care for all? Subways in every city? Some oliberal big government program? No. He was talking about doing very sensible and relatively inexpensive things to prevent catastrophe. The full exchange:
From a tactical perspective, it was a great gaffe. When he tries to offer up something like that in that next debate, Shrum and gang will have a line ready...
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I don't think we want to get to how he's going to pay for all these promises.
Bush chose the wrong debate to use that line. Was Kerry about incresing welfare payments? Free health care for all? Subways in every city? Some oliberal big government program? No. He was talking about doing very sensible and relatively inexpensive things to prevent catastrophe. The full exchange:
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Mr. Kerry Jim, let me tell you exactly what I'll do. And there are a long list of things. First of all, what kind of mixed message does it send when you've got $500 million going over to Iraq to put police officers in the streets of Iraq and the president is cutting the cops program in America? What kind of message does it send to be sending money to open firehouses in Iraq but we're shutting firehouses, who are the first responders here in America? The president hasn't put one nickel - not one nickel - into the effort to fix some of our tunnels and bridges and most exposed subway systems. That's why they had to close down the subway in New York when the Republican convention was there. We haven't done the work that ought to be done.
The president - 95 percent of the containers that come into the ports, right here in Florida, are not inspected. Civilians get onto aircraft and their luggage is X-rayed, but the cargo hold is not X-rayed. Does that make you feel safer in America?
This president thought it was more important to give the wealthiest people in America a tax cut rather than invest in homeland security. Those aren't my values. I believe in protecting America first. And long before President Bush and I get a tax cut - and that's who gets it - long before we do, I'm going to invest in homeland security and I'm going to make sure we're not cutting cops programs in America and we're fully staffed in our firehouses and that we protect the nuclear and chemical plants.
The president, also unfortunately, gave in to the chemical industry, which didn't want to do some of the things necessary to strengthen our chemical plant exposure. And there's an enormous undone job to protect the loose nuclear materials in the world that are able to get to terrorists. That's a whole other subject.
But I see we still have a little bit more time. Let me just quickly say, at the current pace, the president will not secure the loose material in the Soviet Union, former Soviet Union, for 13 years. I'm going to do it in four years. And we're going to keep it out of the hands of terrorists.
Mr. Lehrer Ninety-second response, Mr. President.
Mr. Bush I don't think we want to get to how he's going to pay for all these promises. It's like a huge tax gap and - anyway, that's for another debate.
From a tactical perspective, it was a great gaffe. When he tries to offer up something like that in that next debate, Shrum and gang will have a line ready...
Someone Needs to Retire
Bush:
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In Iraq, no doubt about it, it's tough. It's hard work. It's incredibly hard.
It's-and it's hard work. I understand how hard it is. I get the casualty reports every day. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. But it's necessary work.
We're making progress. It is hard work.
You know my hardest, the hardest part of the job is to know that I committed the troops in harm's way and then do the best I can to provide comfort for the loves ones who lost a son or a daughter or husband and wife. [sadly, no one asked my question]
Her husband, P.J., got killed-been in Afghanistan, went to Iraq. You know, it's hard work to try to love her as best as I can knowing full well that the decision I made caused her, her loved one to be in harm's way.
Yeah, we're the job done. It's hard work.
Understand how hard it is to commit troops. I never wanted to commit troops. I never - when I was running - when we had the debate in 2000, never dreamt I'd be doing that, but the enemy attacked us, Jim, and I have a solemn duty to protect the American people, to do everything I can to protect us. [never dreamt he might have to go to war? wow]
Polish Love
Bush sure was obsessed with Poland and its president last night. Which big media outlet will be the first to remind viewers of his recent statement:
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They deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that's true. We were taken for a ride.
The Charge Not Answered
Yglesias says:
Indeed.
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THE CHARGE NOT ANSWERED. The main thing that lends debates -- as opposed to normal speeches -- some interest is that even when the candidates aren't allowed to directly address one another, they still set up their charges in such a way as to clearly imply that the other guy ought to be responding to his opponents' attacks. In that light, it's worth highlighting one charge Kerry made several times that Bush never responded to directly -- namely that the reason Osama bin Laden is at large threatening the United States rather than dead on the battlefield was the Bush administration's decision to "outsource" the battle of Tora Bora.
I've never heard any of Bush's allies offer a convincing defense of this decision, and it's a critique Kerry's been leveling on-and-off ever since the day it happened. Tonight, Bush didn't even try. A tacit admission, perhaps, that Kerry was right. I think that means Kerry ought to press the assault forward and start bringing this up more often. Force the president to either admit he was wrong and puncture his self-cultivated mystique of infallibility or else offer some kind of defense. I don't see what he could possibly have to say for himself.
Indeed.
USA Today Focus Group
Wow, a focus group without Luntz:
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A panel of 15 undecided voters convened to watch the debate. Although the panel leaned Republican in party registration, when it came to deciding who won the first of three presidential debates, the members overwhelmingly gave the nod to Kerry. (Related: Full poll results)
Only three members of the group who watched the debate at the offices of JRP Marketing Research Services thought Bush emerged the winner.
"He was horrible," said Jason Marsh, 28, a data systems clerk who said he is a registered Republican. "He was stuttering. He wasn't speaking in one coherent thought."
Petulant Child
Oliver catches Bush in some very unpresidential moments. Watch the videos.
...and attaturk gives the debate in pictures.
...and attaturk gives the debate in pictures.
More Reviews
according to the Kerry folk:
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“As far as the debate goes, I don't see how anybody could look at this debate and not score this a very clear win on points for John Kerry." -- Joe Scarborough
"I thought the President was repetitive and reactive." - Kate O'Beirne
"It was John Kerry's best performance ever." -- Joe Scarborough
“The president was remarkably angry seeming"—Mark Halperin
"Bush appeared perturbed when Kerry leveled some of his charges, scowling at times and looking away in apparent disgust at others." Milbank and VanderHei
ABC POLL ON WHO WON DEBATE:
Kerry: 45
Bush 36:
Tie: 17
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