Debate Blogging

I'm watching Fox News right now. It's time for some "live" blogging of the presidential debate. If you've been reading for 4 months or more, you know how this works. I type as I watch, then immediately publish. Stream of consciousness, etc., etc. I won't have as much commentary as usual because I actually want to listen, but I'll do my best. Click the extended entry to descend into the depths of the debate...

Still just commentary right now. They're talking about the controversy about the lights on the podium.

...Here's Lehrer. He sounds like a robot. 90 minutes. I have laundry to do, I can't be sitting here for 90 fargin' minutes. Apparently, Lehrer wrote all the questions.

Here they are. The audience is making noise, in direct violation of the rules. Kerry is first.

Could he do a better job than Bush preventing another attack?

...He's stalling. He doesn't have an answer. Different convictions...America is safest and strongest when leading strong alliances. Except when they're coerced and bribed, of course. He has a better plan. Which he hasn't told us yet. Because it's a secret.

Bush time: He's nervous. Crap crap crap crap crap. 75% of Al Qaeda leaders brought to justice. 10 million Afghanistan voters, taking threats seriously. He's repeating himself from previous events. Free nations will reject terror.

More Bush: Will Kerry's election increase the chances of another 9/11? "I believe I'm gonna win." Bwahahaha. He's not answering the question...that's not good.

Kerry's response: He believes in being strong, resolute, determined...oh, now he's for military action again. Here come the memes. Bin Laden is dead or not a problem, dang it. Memes, memes, memes, memes, memes...Saddam Hussein counts as a WMD, in my opinion. He's rattling off a list of his supporters. But he's not saying why they support him. Oh, man, he's still talking about bin Laden. He doesn't realize who we're fighting.

Kerry: Colossal misjudgments. He's insulting the alliance. Way to be a leader, moron. He thinks the inspections would've worked. 12 years...oh, he mentioned combat. I'm surprised he lasted that long. "We pushed our allies aside." Kind of like you're doing now by insulting them. He doesn't realize where the WoT is centered. Why does he keep mentioning bin Laden? When was the last time we heard from him?

Bush: Kerry thought Hussein was a threat. Using his own words against him. Mentioning the resolutions. Good.

Bush on bin Laden: We can go after Hussein and bin Laden. Good, good. He's reminding him that the war is global, not centered on Afghanistan. Philippines, Zarqawi...yep. Those aren't real terrorists, are they, Kerry? I can't wait to see what Kerry says about Allawi.

Kerry rebuttal: Calling Iraq a diversion again. "Rush to war without a plan to win the peace." He's reading a freaking script. I could've written all his responses. He's even using the myths about body armor. The armor that he voted against. Several times. Throughout his career. And recently.

Bush: Kerry voted for force. Lowering morale, sending the wrong message.

Kerry: "I will succeed." How, dang it? It was a mistake of judgment even though he voted for it before he voted against it before he was for it again. Or something. He basically just said we were unilateral.

Kerry on homeland security: He's treating it as a law enforcement operation, as if it's more important to be prepared for an attack. Instead of, you know, preventing one. "Tax cuts for the wealthy." How many memes can he go through? HOW MANY?! He's more worried about the former Soviet Union than Iraq?!

Bush: How will Kerry pay for it? Heh heh. Bush has increased security spending. 3.1 billion for fire and police. "The best way to protect this homeland is to stay on the offense." EXACTLY!!! If we don't get attacked, we don't have to worry about first responders. "The Patriot Act is vital."

Kerry: "We didn't need that tax cut." O...kay.

Bush: When do you bring troops home? Train Iraqi citizens to do the job. Good. Kerry would rather bring in troops from France or something, I bet.

Kerry: "Help is on the way." Yeah, sure. Because pulling them out before they're done really helps them. "The president's father did not go into Iraq." That's why Iraq was f**ked up for another decade, dang it. He just used the "war for oil" meme, too. And he talked about WMD that didn't exist. Flip-flop. How does he expect to bring credibility to us if he insults our coalition?

Bush: Mentioning morale again. $87 billion line. Heh.

Kerry: The president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Even though he voted for it. 3 Vietnam references now.

Here come some more. "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" He's acting like Bush didn't think before going into Iraq. During the year he spent planning it. And talking to the UN. And our allies. He still thinks we should've retaliated for 9/11 then stopped. That's just sad. Halliburton meme. Wow.

Bush: The UN was invited, but they pulled out. Right. Tony Blair, Poland, etc. YES! Tell him not to insult the coalition if he wants to build a bigger one. Once again, Kerry's words are killing him. I saw this coming from miles away.

Kerry: Still wants the UN to help. Even though they didn't want to be there.

Bush: There are 30 nations involved. Kerry thinks there are 3.

New Bush question: Postwar miscalculation. We didn't plan for such a rapid victory, so there were more Saddam loyalists left. Interesting. It's good to point out that we're fighting terrorists, not "revolutionaries" or "minutemen." We can't send mixed signals to our troops, friends, and Iraqi citizens. Elections in January. Iraqi soldier training. NATO. Jordan, UAE...$7 billion for reconstruction. Strong alliance, Arab summit...he's got his facts in order, I'll give him that.

Kerry: "Imminent threat." There's another one! He's pretty much one step away from lying now. He's describing a completely different war at this point. He's insulting the coalition again! Crap, this guy is dumb.

Kerry question: Bush lie accusations. What is a lie? Nuclear materials...he said 10 minutes ago that we didn't guard nuclear sites, and now there weren't any? What is this guy smoking? "We did not go as a last resort." Dude...12 years is a last resort. Saddam had plenty of time to give up his WMD, and he didn't. Deal with it.

Bush: Using Kerry's words against him again. This is a beautiful thing. Beautiful. A commander-in-chief doesn't change positions. They saw the same intelligence, and Kerry supported the war. This should be good.

Kerry: "I've had one position."

Bush: "The only thing that's been consistent is that he's inconsistent." There's your sound bite.

Bush question: Is the war worth it? Emotional appeals. Here they come. "Spread ffffffffffreedom."

Kerry: 4 Vietnam references. Nice. He's referring to his plans again. But you have to go online to see them.

Bush: It's essential to get it right...and he's overtime.

Kerry: "If you break it, you fix it." So why does he want to fix it?

Kerry question: Can you give us specifics for ending major U.S. involvement? Convince them that we don't have long term designs...military bases...yeah, you need those when your military is there. "War for oil" again. He's framing Bush as an imperialist now. The MoveOn minions must be getting excited. And Noam Chomsky.

Bush: 125,000 trained by the end of the year. Bush realizes that there is an enemy to fight before we start leaving. He's mentioning that Kerry criticized Allawi, and his campaign called him a puppet. Good call.

Kerry: The Iraqis could be free, but we need to do things a different way. Allawi said terrorists were pouring over the border...

Bush: Allawi recognizes that we're fighting terror in Iraq. Flypaper strategy, essentially. Hmmm.

New question: Are we more likely to go to war again? He hopes we never have to. He never wanted to commit troops, but the enemy attacked us. There's one supposed "flip-flop" shot down. Diplomacy was falling apart in Iraq, and Hussein wanted us to turn away. He's bringing up Libya. Which was disarmed because we stood by our word. Good.

Kerry: He's got a response..."Saddam Hussein didn't attack us." But you said he was a threat, didn't you? Holy crap, he still thinks we need to be fighting bin Laden. And Saddam would've been weakened by diplomacy. Oh, resolution number 18 would've been the effective one.

Bush: That's ludicrous. Heh.

Kerry: 35 to 40 countries had a greater capability of making weapons. Did they also support Palestinian terror and sit between a bunch of other terrorist nations?

Kerry: What is your view of pre-emption? The president has the authority, but you must do it the right way. "The global test." What? Is that like the "does France like us" test? He thinks world leaders would respect him more than they respect Bush. "I'll never take my eye off that ball." Global warming? Holy crap. Just...holy crap.

Bush: What is the global test? Good question. Pre-emption protects this country. Exactly. What about the treaties? He didn't join the International Criminal Court. Don't join a foreign court that can prosecute our people. Exactly. "Trying to be popular...if it's not in our best interests makes no sense." No decisions that are wrong for America.

New question: Can diplomacy solve problems with NK and Iran? North Korea was not honoring our agreement when he was elected, and other nations were needed. He said "nucular." And "peninshula." My brain hurts. We have more people talking to Kim Jong-Il than before. He wants to unravel the coalition sending him a message. Iran: Work with the world to convince the mullahs to give up. STOP SAYING NUCULAR! DANG IT DANG IT DANG IT.

Kerry: British, French, and Germans started with Iran, and we should've provided nuclear fuel to them. Uh...wow. North Korea: We knew where the fuel rods were...we knew their limits...he actually has a good point here. Crap.

Bush: Kim Jong-Il had uranium. We've sanctioned Iran already. We worked with Germany, France and Great Britain.

Kerry question: Darfur. What should we do? It is genocide. We can support the African Union. We need to do more to stop the killing, but don't have the resources. He's going..."backdoor draft." Yep. He said it. There are people singing out in the hall right now, by the way. Stupid dorm. Anyway...double the number of special forces. If we needed to send troops to Darfur, he would. As a "last resort," right?

Bush: Iran was sanctioned before 2000. Darfur is genocide. $200 million worth of aid...we shouldn't send troops.

New Bush question: Are there character issues affecting Kerry's ability to lead? BUSH MENTIONED VIETNAM? Daughter talk...Kerry served in the Senate. Really? I thought he was in 'Nam until last year. Here comes the flip-flop talk again. "Mexed missages." Oops.

Kerry: He's trying to bring himself to compliment Bush. "It's one thing to be certain...it's another to be certain and be right...then learn new facts..." Every other day? Wow. Them's a lotta facts.

Bush response: "One should shift tactics." He won't change values.

Kerry: "I've never wavered in my life." BWAAAAAHAHAHAHA! Hussein needed to be disarmed, Bush needed the authority...we didn't need to rush to war.

Kerry question: What will you take most seriously as president? Nuclear proliferation. NS is now panicking because Bush will have to say "nuclear" again. Kerry wrote a book? "The New War." I've just heard of "The New Soldier." We've secured less nuclear material. Bush cut the money for ending nuclear proliferation. We're pursuing nuclear weapons, but other countries can't have them...uh, if other countries have 'em, shouldn't we at least be ready? What happened to the "first responder" stuff?

Bush: We've increased funding. Proliferation Security Initiative. We convinced Libya to disarm...missile defense. Good.

Kerry: NK has weapons, Iran is moving toward weapons...didn't he just say we should give more materials to Iran?

Bush: Bilateral NK talks are bad because China will be left out.

Bush question: Did he misjudge Putin, or is he doing a good job? It's not okay what Putin is doing. Consolidation of power is bad. Checks and balances...Beslan...they need a good relation. Effective disagreements are important. Russia is a country in transition. Democracy is good, apparently. Good call.

Kerry: He was in Russia, he saw the KGB files during the transition. "I regret what's happened in these past months." Putin has power over TV stations, jailing political opposition. Bush didn't say "mission accomplished," you idiot. He explained that already.

Bush: They looked at the same intelligence...Kerry called it a "grave threat," and it was the truth.

Kerry: He was a threat, but how do you deal with it? We don't have a "true coalition." Dang it, why is he insulting them again? How does he expect to keep the coalition together if he doesn't like 'em?

Closing statements:

Kerry: They both love this country, but have a different set of convictions about how to make us stronger at home and respected in the world. 5 Vietnam references! 5!!! "I have a plan for Iraq." But it's a secret. He's going to do...apparently, the same things Bush has done. Cutting off funds, reaching out to other nations, etc.

Bush: We can't show uncertainty or weakness. We will continue to strengthen our homeland defenses, intelligence, all-volunteer military (nice. Slipped in an anti-draft phrase). We will spread freedom, as liberty has transformational power. Freedom is in this nation's interests. We've worked together, we've been challenged, "I see the valley below, and it's a valley of peace." Strength, honesty, support for our troops = peace. "I ask for your vote, and may God continue to bless our great land."

So, that's it. Kerry actually did better than I thought, but due to the huge number of memes in his responses, I'll have to go ahead and say that Bush won. Here comes commentary. Again, I have laundry to do, so I'm going to publish this thing and get to work pretty soon. But as for final thoughts...

Like I said, Kerry had way too many memes and half-truths in his answers. Bush was probably more articulate than I've ever seen him. He's really honest about his beliefs, and he does know what he believes. Kerry seems determined to convince us that he'll be a better diplomat than Bush, even though he has a history of turning on his allies.

Bush wins, in my opinion, but not by much. He'll have to do better to convince the swing voters. If I was undecided, I probably wouldn't be changing my mind now.

Time to wash clothing. What fun.

Posted by CD on September 30, 2004 10:30 PM
Category: Liveblogging