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F R I D A Y , O C T O B E R 0 1 , 2 0 0 4My Two Cents IIby Michael in New York on
10/01/2004 05:00:00 AMI guess I'm the only one who didn't think Kerry fought back onflip-flopping. He shouldn't have defended himself; he should havecatalogued all the ways Bush has flip-flopped on nation building, the9/11 commission, the intelligence czar, and so on.Onto Bush's many weak moments that Kerry might have skeweredmore but didn't.1. Bush repeated "hard work" and "mixed messages" so many times Iwas hoping Kerry would move in for the kill. It didn't take me but asecond to come up with one quip: "If George Bush was the captain ofthe Titanic and he saw an iceberg dead ahead, he'd say we can'tchange course because that might send a mixed message. When Isee a crisis, I'm going to fix it, not pretend it doesn't exist."2. The dead soldiers -- Bush had the nerve to say he honored deadsoldiers. I wanted Kerry to say, "You haven't attended the funeral ofone dead soldier that served in Iraq. That's a purely political decisionand it's shameful and it certainly doesn't comfort the families.WhenI'm President, I'll never hide from the very real and very painfulhuman costs of the decisions I make."3. Trained Iraqi troops -- I couldn't believe Bush said we had 100,000trained Iraqi troops when both Rumsfeld (90,000) and the State Depttestifying to Congress (50,000 -- depending on how you definetrained/fully trained) have given conflicting, lower estimates in thelast few days. But I was even more stunned Kerry didn't jump on it asanother example of Bush refusing to talk straight with the Americanpeople.4. Bush on the war -- "I get casualty reports every day. I see on theTV screens how hard it is." Everyone's pointed this whopper outalready. He's seen by watching TV how hard it is?5. Bush on never dreaming of going to war in Iraq -- okay, Kerrylanded one of his strongest punches by pouncing on Bush's defenseof invading Iraq by saying "the enemy attacked us" in the very sameresponse where he said it never occured to him that the Presidentmight have to go to war. But really, Bush didn't dream of invadingIraq?"You didn't dream of invading Iraq when you were running forPresident? You are surrounded by top aides and advisers who havespent the last decade scheming and dreaming of invading Iraq andthen snapping their fingers to turn the Middle East into democracies.Your advisers ahve published papers and given speeches and workedin think tanks devoted to the idea of invading Iraq. They wanted toinvade Iraq long before you even decided to run for President. Theywanted to invade Iraq long before 9/11. If you don't know that manyof the people around you dreamed of invading Iraq, then you don'tknow the people you work with."But anyway, Kerry looked Presidential and kept it punchy and tightand boy, did we win the post-debate spin.
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10/01/2004 05:00:00 AMI guess I'm the only one who didn't think Kerry fought back onflip-flopping. He shouldn't have defended himself; he should havecatalogued all the ways Bush has flip-flopped on nation building, the9/11 commission, the intelligence czar, and so on.Onto Bush's many weak moments that Kerry might have skeweredmore but didn't.1. Bush repeated "hard work" and "mixed messages" so many times Iwas hoping Kerry would move in for the kill. It didn't take me but asecond to come up with one quip: "If George Bush was the captain ofthe Titanic and he saw an iceberg dead ahead, he'd say we can'tchange course because that might send a mixed message. When Isee a crisis, I'm going to fix it, not pretend it doesn't exist."2. The dead soldiers -- Bush had the nerve to say he honored deadsoldiers. I wanted Kerry to say, "You haven't attended the funeral ofone dead soldier that served in Iraq. That's a purely political decisionand it's shameful and it certainly doesn't comfort the families.WhenI'm President, I'll never hide from the very real and very painfulhuman costs of the decisions I make."3. Trained Iraqi troops -- I couldn't believe Bush said we had 100,000trained Iraqi troops when both Rumsfeld (90,000) and the State Depttestifying to Congress (50,000 -- depending on how you definetrained/fully trained) have given conflicting, lower estimates in thelast few days. But I was even more stunned Kerry didn't jump on it asanother example of Bush refusing to talk straight with the Americanpeople.4. Bush on the war -- "I get casualty reports every day. I see on theTV screens how hard it is." Everyone's pointed this whopper outalready. He's seen by watching TV how hard it is?5. Bush on never dreaming of going to war in Iraq -- okay, Kerrylanded one of his strongest punches by pouncing on Bush's defenseof invading Iraq by saying "the enemy attacked us" in the very sameresponse where he said it never occured to him that the Presidentmight have to go to war. But really, Bush didn't dream of invadingIraq?"You didn't dream of invading Iraq when you were running forPresident? You are surrounded by top aides and advisers who havespent the last decade scheming and dreaming of invading Iraq andthen snapping their fingers to turn the Middle East into democracies.Your advisers ahve published papers and given speeches and workedin think tanks devoted to the idea of invading Iraq. They wanted toinvade Iraq long before you even decided to run for President. Theywanted to invade Iraq long before 9/11. If you don't know that manyof the people around you dreamed of invading Iraq, then you don'tknow the people you work with."But anyway, Kerry looked Presidential and kept it punchy and tightand boy, did we win the post-debate spin.
HuffPost PoliticsAllison Kilkenny: Obama, Nukes, and the World -While Obama's pursuit of nuclear disarmamentwould be noble, double standards, favoritism, andfear-mongering are cancerous elements that robthe U.S. of res...6 minutes agoFiredoglakeSave American Jobs: Close Your Chase Account -JP Morgan Chase refuses to do what it takes tosave 300,000 jobs and the healthcare of 700,000retirees. So I decided today to no longer be a partof that....31 minutes agoDaily Kos"Difference isn't a threat" - Dave Neiwert, theblogosphere's leading expert on the eliminationistmovement, has a typically excellent post about theweekend's tragic shooting at Croo...38 minutes agoEschatonDeep Thought - Why is Chris Hayes always on myteevee?41 minutes agoCrooks and LiarsNCAA Basketball Open Thread - Satire from TheOnion. Yeah, yer brackets are in the toilet. Openthread for the NCAA Championship game, a regularopen thread appears at 8:30 Pacific Ti...1 hour agoJ O H N ' S P H OT O S
Show All
www.TheGodMovie.comFeedback - Ads by Google
www.TheGodMovie.comAds by Google AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth: My T...http://www.americablog.com/2004/10/my-two-cents-ii.html
1 of 64/6/09 10:11 PM