Its safe to say that the majority of educated, informed people of the US have already made up their minds about the election. For the most part, the debate was NOT for those people. They've been listening to the same mudslinging for quite a while now.
No, the debates are for the people that haven't been paying attention since the the democratic primary. For both the educated and the uneducated.
Now, some of you are complaining that Bush just said the same thing over and over.
Maybe that's because its what he believes, and he wanted to make sure that the people who haven't been paying attention remember what he said.
We've heard it for a while. People that weren't paying attention heard it, possibly for the first time, and Bush sees it as being important to have a solid voice.
Unlike Kerry, who has changed what he believes as the campaign has moved along:
- Complains that our troops don't have the body armor they need...when he voted against the appropriations to pay for it.
- Supported the war by voting for giving Bush the authority to declare, then came out to be against the war because we "didn't find WMD", and most recently stated in an interview on Wednesday that (paraphrasing) 'if it turns out good, it was a good idea, if it turns out bad, it was a bad idea'.
(BTW: I'm of the opinion that Saddam himself was a WMD, so we found one really big one)
- In the early times of the Vietnam War, people were for it. Kerry joined. Then it became trendy to bash the war and be opposed to it. Kerry testifies against the vets before Congress, throws his medals, meets with N. Vietnamese officials in Paris etc.
- Kerry says that he wants to bring the nations of the world back to our side, then he turns around and calls them coerced and bribed, and allows his people to refer to Prime Minister Allawi as a puppet.
BTW: All those number, RR, that you were proud of Kerry remembering, well, there is a little quote that I like, from Mark Twain "There are lies, damn lies and statistics."
Let me quote some of what Kerry said:
Quote
And so, today, we are 90 percent of the casualties and 90 percent of the cost: $200 billion -- $200 billion that could have been used for health care, for schools, for construction, for prescription drugs for seniors, and it's in Iraq.
- We are not 90% of the casualties. I think Kerry is ignoring the injured and dead Iraqi police and military that have fallen to RPGs and IEDs. I think I heard that there were at least 700 dead of them. 1000 is not 90% of 1700 (on the low side). Before you ask, let me ask you, why wouldn't they be considered part of the coalition??
- That $200 billion number has been going around for at least a week now. We've only spent $120 billion, the excess either hasn't been spent, or hasn't been asked for.
