Oh please.
Let me get this out of the way first: Lehrer was horrible! Unbiased?? Sure, okay... as unbiased as I am.
(Different side, though.)
Kerry looked great up there... confident, charismatic, etc. In fact, I'd say he won the debate, if I had the TV on mute. Unfortunately, I had the volume up and heard every word, so I know better. :p
Okay, I just read 2 pages' worth of comments on these debates from you guys. Did NO ONE listen to the debate? Did no one hear John Kerry go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth on his positions on everything? Did no one hear how
ignorant his comments were? It was disgusting!!!
One second, Saddam was the least of our worries. The next second, he was a grave threat. 2 minutes later, he shouldn't have been our focus at the time. 45 seconds later, we should have spent more
time with diplomacy towards him. Yadda yadda yadda, man!! I was exhausted just listening to the guy run around in circles!!
And I loved this quote from Bush about picking
either Bin Laden or Hussein to go after:
"Jim, we've got the capability of doing both." Too bad neither Kerry nor anyone else was paying attention to anything Bush said, because this kept coming up. In fact, everything kept coming up over and over again. Bush answered a question, 2 questions later, he'd be asked the same thing. He was very patient, actually. If it'd been me, I'd have been like, "Are you serious? I just told you! Weren't you here??" :rolleyes:
Like this, for example:
"And that's why it's essential that we have strong alliances, and we do." Bush said this WAY before anyone mentioned alliances. But even after this, Kerry kept bringing up the fact that the whole world is against us, and Bush should have gotten some allies, and how we're doing this alone, and how Bush "pushed away" the help that other nations offered, and the help that the UN offered,* and how only 2 nations are with us (Australia and GB), and that "we can do better" than just 2 allies. Jeez, Senator, we just went over this!! But I guess that's when you went outside for a smoke; you must have missed it... we'll do it again, buddy.
"Well, actually, he forgot Poland. And now there's 30 nations involved, standing side by side with our American troops.
And I honor their sacrifices. And I don't appreciate it when candidate for president denigrates the contributions of these brave soldiers." <---- Bush's calm and patient, yet hard-hitting response to Kerry's shenanigans. God I love this man. And yet, the whole "alliances" thing came up at least two more times after this!!! I swear, Bush should talk in his GOOD ear next time.
*Memo to Kerry: we didn't reject the UN; the UN pulled out their help. Thanks for trying, though.
BTW:
"I believe that Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy, and the others did that more effectively, and I'm going to try to follow in their footsteps."Please, Senator Kerry, don't ever,
ever compare yourself to Reagan again. That was so CHEAP, for him to play that card; the "Look, I'm being fair and citing a Republican as one of my role models now!" card. Cheap, disgusting, and WAY out of his reach, anyway.
Another great Bush quote:
"My opponent just said something amazing. He said Usama bin Laden uses the invasion of Iraq as an excuse to spread hatred for America. Usama bin Laden isn't going to determine how we defend ourselves.
Usama bin Laden doesn't get to decide. The American people decide." That was beautiful.
That whole answer was beautiful, actually. I'm going to quote it again here, and try to stay with it and pay attention:
"My opponent just said something amazing. He said Usama bin Laden uses the invasion of Iraq as an excuse to spread hatred for America. Usama bin Laden isn't going to determine how we defend ourselves.
Usama bin Laden doesn't get to decide. The American people decide.
I decided the right action was in Iraq. My opponent calls it a mistake. It wasn't a mistake.
He said I misled on Iraq. I don't think he was misleading when he called Iraq a grave threat in the fall of 2002.
I don't think he was misleading when he said that it was right to disarm Iraq in the spring of 2003. [Well into the war, by the way.]
I don't think he misled you when he said that, you know, anyone who doubted whether the world was better off without Saddam Hussein in power didn't have the judgment to be president. I don't think he was misleading.
I think what is misleading is to say you can lead and succeed in Iraq if you keep changing your positions on this war. And he has. As the politics change, his positions change. And that's not how a commander in chief acts.
Let me finish.
The intelligence I looked at was the same intelligence my opponent looked at, the very same intelligence. And when I stood up there and spoke to the Congress, I was speaking off the same intelligence he looked at to make his decisions to support the authorization of force."OUCH!! That was gorgeous.
On to the next... Kerry's answer to this next question was complete fluff:
"Can you give us specifics, in terms of a scenario, time lines, et cetera, for ending major U.S. military involvement in Iraq?"No, of course he can't, no one can!! This isn't a clear-cut war, like all the past wars we've fought. Because this isn't a war about territory, or nationalism, or anything like that. #1, this is a war on terror, and terrorist groups operate as secret cells. It takes time to bring down organizations whose existence we're not even supposed to know of. #2, we're rebuilding a free Iraq. So it's going to be a long process! Bottom line, no one can know exactly the timeline, scenario, etc.; not President Bush, not Colin Powell, not John Kerry. But of course Kerry thought up some bogus answer, pretending he's got a plan. He could have just said, "No, Jim, there's really no way to know at this point." and that would have been ok. But no, he's gotta make like he's got it all covered. His answer was fluff, I'm tellin' ya. He talked for two minutes about it, but he didn't say anything. Go figure.
"I have a plan to have a summit with all of the allies," he used the term "summit" 8,485,392 times in this debate. Yes, Mr. Kerry, that will work. Good job comin' up with the idea!! Man, I wish Bush talked to our allies. Unfortunately, their conversations were all by telegram, so our allies are fiercely uninformed... from Bush, "War w. Iraq you want in?" from Chirac, "no." from Blair, "sure!" I guess a summit
would, indeed, have been more thorough. Oh well, next time. Live and learn.
And this... This was
low:
LEHRER: "Colossal misjudgments." What colossal misjudgments, in your opinion, has President Bush made in these areas?
KERRY: Well, where do you want me to begin? With that smirk on his face. He was being sarcastic, people. That was sick. This man has no class. This is your president you're talking about, and to his face, no less. You don't have to agree with him, for sure. That's the beauty of this country.
However, there's a certain amount of respect that one needs to have towards the leader of one's own country. This man has authority over you! To
mock him to his face was so unnecessary, rude, and plain ugly. *And yes, I still would have said this even if the president was a Democrat, and a Republican said that to his face.*
Oh, and Kerry again:
"I know I can do a better job in Iraq." ...Yeah, okay. :rolleyes:
The President, in a moment exasperation:
"The only consistent about my opponent's position is that he's been inconsistent. He changes positions. And you cannot change positions in this war on terror if you expect to win.
And I expect to win. It's necessary we win." Go get 'em, tiger.