Debate Impressions, Act III

Clearer win for Kerry this time, though still not as outstanding as his first. (Maybe I'm developing high expectations. I figure the Presidency could use a few of those.) There weren't a lot of knockdown punches in this one, but the few that were there were mostly coming from Kerry's side. General notes: Bush looks more relaxed, though he's tenser than Kerry throughout. The moderator asks tough questions of both candidates, though some are fairly foreign-affairs in their scope (the debate was to be on domestic issues). Both candidates were generally slow and careful in their delivery, rarely getting a chance to bite down on long stretches of juicy preparations.

The first question is about what level of safety any President can really achieve for America. Kerry basically goes through a laundry list of things that could be done that we aren't doing. (I can't believe we stopped funding the COPS program.) Bush, uh, drops a couple of lines from the stump speech and brins up this week's Afghan elections, right down to the 19-year-old female first voter.

Kerry draws the first chuckle from the audience, a small one (the audience isn't really supposed to), with a stump line featuring Tony Soprano in a question about fiscal responsibility, like reinstating pay-as-you-go budgeting. After the President talks about responding to job losses with training, Kerry points out that the President cut job training funds. Nice one, but he's got better.

Now we come to one of the best exchanges of the night. The question: jobs; what can a President really do? Kerry's answer: well, we can do more than we're doing now. Like this -- insert list. Of note is that the funding for Pell grants is down. Bush fires back saying there are a million more students on Pell grants. He tosses in one of his campaign theme/slogans about Kerry's time in the Senate, saying "His record does not match his rhetoric." He particularly cites that Kerry voted for higher taxes 98 times, which, under a not-unreasonable interpretation of Senate procedure, is true. And hot dang, Kerry pulls out the Context Stick and whaps the President like a bad dog: under the same interpretation of the Senate rules, it must be pointed out that he also voted for tax cuts, 600 times! Oh, and Pell grants: yeah, there's more students on them, because they're for poor students and more students these days are poor! Furthermore, that still doesn't refer to absolute funding levels, which, even with more students, are down!

The Context Stick goes "Wham!"

Bush, um, recites his numbers again. Can't really blame him; there isn't really a response to a beatdown like that.

Time to get into abortion, homosexuality, all those red meat issues. Bush points out that he supported a constitutional amendment to block gay marriage, great for the base but I still am not sure how the amendment plays with swing voters. Kerry's against that. A question on the recent organization of a group of Catholic bishops who are a magic word away from being a PAC against Kerry morphs into a discussion of abortion, with Kerry saying he would appoint judges who would keep Roe v. wade and Bush rather disingenuously saying he wouldn't apply a litmus test, though, oh, we should promote a culture of life. Sure he would, he'd appoint pro-life judges and everybody and their momma knows it. The President cites his abstinence programs, briefly and at the end of his time so it doesn't get a response. I really think everyone who actively refuses to tell sexually active teenagers about condoms ought to have their parenting license revoked. Jeebus.

A couple of questions on health care. The President touts his health savings accounts, which I really wish Kerry had attacked harder; Bush supports medical liability reform and increased use of information technology in medicine. Kerry calls for importing drugs from Canada, and letting Medicare use its negotiating power. That's another one I can't believe the Administration pulled -- if the free market's so great, why not let a major buyer negotiate prices down? Because they like giving money to drug companies, that's why, and for once it's not an anthropomorphization. Bush says Kerry has "no record of leadership" on health care, to which Kerry pulls out the Context Stick and smacks the President around a little more, citing his work authoring and passing Senatorial bills on medical care. Kerry cites a couple of news networks as calling the President's characterizations of his health care plan "fiction", which might have been a stylistic mistake; the President essentially picks it up. On the other hand, this is the first debate in which I've really heard him lay out the details of his health plan. Bush repeats his charge that Kerry's plan is government-controlled health care and raises the spectre of rationing... this being the charge labeled fictitious by the aforesaid news organizations. Which it is, and Kerry says as much.

Social Security comes in for a pair of questions now. Both candidates face tough questions about how their proposals will be paid for, and Bush essentially says it will increase the deficit but it will be worth it, while Kerry says his is more payable and we can get back to Clinton-era surpluses to support it. The conversation bumps over to jobs and tax cuts, a little awkwardly, and mother of all crustaceans did Bush just say "most of the tax cuts went to low and middle income Americans"? You lose. You lose right there, Mr. President, because that's a baldfaced lie. Not only did most of them go to the richest Americans, if you extend them out over 10 years you've given most -- literally, more than half -- to the richest one percent of Americans. Kerry doesn't have an opportunity to rebut this wild claim, but by the power vested in me by God and the state of sentience, you, Mr. President, lose.

Spin the domestic-issues wheel. Immigration? Bush is for temporary worker card, Kerry for guest worker program and earned legalization. A brief tussle on border security with no clear winner. On the minimum wage, Kerry gives a clear yes, and the President lamely says he supported it but it didn't come up, then skitters over to No Child Left Behind. Didn't the President say he supported extending the assault weapons ban when campaigning? Bush says, gee, sure did, but the Congress didn't want to, and what's a President to do, you know? Kerry plays hockey with that and presidential responsibility for a minute, then tosses in that he's not going to come to your house and take your guns, and as long as we're talking about people that wanted the ban and people that didn't, why don't we ask the cops that have to face them?

On affirmative action we get a line from Kerry that is going to show up in Republican commercials, and you just know they'll edit it. He says that President Bush met with neither the NAACP nor the Congressional Black Caucus, and he's the first President in decades not to do so. Well, the first half is true and the second half isn't, and it's a pretty stupid thing to lie about if you're planning to lie about it, so ten to one it's a mistake and I'd like to see Kerry admit it quickly. But you just know it's going to be spun to support claims that Kerry's a liar. Far be it from the paragons of honesty that will be spouting about this to examine the rest of the debate under the same standards.

A question of faith, and some interesting lines. Of course the President, this time speaking slowly and carefully, talks about how important his faith is to him. For once I believe he's speaking the heartfelt truth. The line about how he "feels" people praying for him is just plain creepy. He cheers for his faith-based initiative, which might as well be his "let's fund Christian charities" initiative from where the money has actually been going. Kerry goes more inclusive on his listing of religions, and I think it's a pity that he didn't build his whole reply around the line that faith without works is dead. George Bush may have faith, but caritas in the noble sense is something severely lacking in his works.

On the "we squandered national unity" question, Kerry makes his basic point simply agreeing with the moderator. He drops McCain's name twice, which Bush runs with by pointing out that McCain endorsed him, though he blames the polarization on the Washington culture and special interests. Heaven forfend he's actually responsible for any of it.

Do we need a draft? Kerry says nope, and here's what we can do, item item item, but what we really need is allies. Bush says "the best way to take the pressure off our troops is to succeed in Iraq."

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Yeah. Winning does usually help do that. Right: step 1, stressed troops... ... step three, VICTORY!

The stupid "global test" ruckus makes another appearance, and Kerry has an opportunity to haul out the Context Stick for one last beating: saying we need to pass a global test before using force doesn't mean that other countries ought to be able to tell us not to use our troops, it means we ought to be able to pass the global laugh test -- have weighty, supportable reasons for going to war. It's not hard to comprehend, unless someone's deliberately trying to twist it.

All in all, Kerry had both the strongest punches and the one notable gaffe. But I figure he can recover from the latter. The facts will last longer, and so I'm calling this a win for him.

Posted by William at October 13, 2004 08:16 PM

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