Bellicose And Pregnant: Fire In The Hold!
Dean
The Queen went to bed rather impressed with Senator Kerry's performance in the debates.
Then she woke up and... well, you can read it here.
Uhm, I think I may have in a roundabout way been trying to make a few of the same points, but in a more roundabout way.
(Yes sir, that's my baby, no sir, don't mean maybe...)
By the way, she does make, rather forcefully, a point I have been trying to hammer home to my Bush-hating friends for over two years: any idiot can look at anyone's job performance and find flaws. I mean, literally, a child can do that to practically anyone's performance on anything. The real test of your mettle is if you can clearly and unequivocally say, "this is what I would do instead, and here is why it would be better."
Related Posts (on one page):
- Bellicose And Pregnant: Fire In The Hold!
- More Debate Thoughts, Including Some History
- Debate Aftermath
- Debate-Blogging
Kerry kicked Bush's ass.
Pathetic.
Yours,
Wince
I'm in the minority that thought the debate was a draw. It's a pretty honorable minority since it includes Ann Althouse, N. Z. Bear, and both major DC newspapers.
I was a bit miffed that the questions included little except Iraq. For me our relationship with China is an enormous issue that has repercussions in our dealings with Iraq, Iran, and North Korea and I scarcely heard a mention of it.
That's why IMO Bush is substantively right in insisting on multi-lateral talks with North Korea. No talks that don't include China are worth a derned thing.
Clinton struggled with both the 1993 Trade Center matter and was so bogged down in MonicaGate that he didnt handle the U.S.S. Cole incident well. He also had poor intelligence by all accounts. He was especially criticized for his handling of the Cole incident. No one claimed he was dishonest.
Second guessing the intelligence failure accomplishes little because Bush Sr. and Clinton cut back CIA involvement in Pakistan and Afghanistan substantially after the Russians exited Afghanistan. Even during the years of Soviet occupation CIA intelligence was limited. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia poured in all the money and arms, but Pakistani intelligence distributed all of it and did most of the training. This is docmented in any number of sources. (GHOST WARS by Steve Coll of the Washington Post, a liberal, is one example.)
The rancor between left and right obscures the real issues and the real issues. The blame game on many issues of limited or no importance has obscured the different views of both candidates. Mainstream press and bloggers have gotten entangled in an era, Vietnam and Watergate, in which they have little real understanding.
The integrity of an American war hero and longtime member of the U.S. Senate has been called into question. The integrity of a President of the United States has been called into question. The movtives of both the left and right have included old grudges and irrelevant issues. The blatant lies and misrepentations have been a disservice to the constiuencies both claim to represent.
Right now there are quite a few uncommitted voters who don't want to vote for Bush but aren't convinced that they can trust Kerry with the presidency.
He went a long way last night towards gaining that trust. He appeared calm, cool, collected and in command of both himself and the facts.