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Ahhh. I’m looking forward to the Edwards/Cheney debate tonight, so I just listened to this one all over again. I love the way Kerry unfurled the subject of unsecured nuclear materials, bringing it in at both ends of the debate, like it’s his specialist subject, his theme, the serious undercurrent that Bush hasn’t been facing up to (...well, I had no idea that threats posed by nuclear proliferation and ‘loose’ nuclear materials would ever be such an issue, anyway. It’s the kind of thing we’d *never* hear being debated during election campaigns in this country). He brought the issue up, defined the dangers presented by nuclear materials, and sold the necessity of action, in a couple of 90-second bursts. The president’s best stumbling response? To helpfully point out the tax shortfall between what K says needs to be done on 'homeland security' with how much a Bush presidency would have to pay for it. How did this guy ever get to be president, anyway?
Kerry (sounding like a grown-up): And the test is not whether you're spending more money. The test is, are you doing everything possible to make America safe?
We didn't need that tax cut. America needed to be safe.
Bush (sounding like an idiot child): Of course we're doing everything we can to protect America.*snort* I wake up every day thinking about how best to protect America. That's my job.
I work with Director Mueller of the FBI; comes in my office when I'm in Washington every morning, talking about how to protect us. There's a lot of really good people working hard to do so.
It's not really a very soundbite-ready answer. What with all the talk of knockout blows and points victories, there was only one guy landing his jab with any force that I could see. In fact, if I didn’t know better I‘d say Georgie was deliberately taking a dive at this point. Or, is that a conspiracy too far? I mean, okay, maybe he’s not got the sharpest of intellects, but one thing I’m sure he’s always been good at is repeating the phrases prepared for him by a team of well-funded evil geniuses. As has already been pointed out in this thread, Bush repeating Kerry’s ‘wrong war, wrong time, wrong place’ line at every opportunity is a bizarre strategy. Repeating over and over again what a very hard job it is being president is surely *not* the way to present yourself as fit for reelection. Was he really just adlibbing, all those times? It’s a bit odd.
Almost as odd as yesterday's big gaffe by Rumsfeld. Maybe we can play 'conspiracy or cock-up' when the much-feared October surprise does or doesn't turn up. Until then, much of the right-wing attack since the debate seems to have focussed right in on Kerry’s line about a ‘global test’. Well, although it’s a bit of a sucky phrase if twisted or taken out of context, I have to admit to being kinda bowled over by the paragraph it led Kerry up to:
...we can remember when President Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis sent his secretary of state to Paris to meet with DeGaulle. And in the middle of the discussion, to tell them about the missiles in Cuba, he said, "Here, let me show you the photos." And DeGaulle waved them off and said, "No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me."
How many leaders in the world today would respond to us, as a result of what we've done, in that way? So what is at test here is the credibility of the United States of America and how we lead the world.
...is that not beautiful? Yes, okay, it’s a silly, fantasyland version of international politics, but it's also a lovely narrative he's trying to write you into. It’s a resonant image that appeals all over: One of the reasons Bush and co are so utterly loathed around the world - apart from all the death, that is - is the way this *idea* of America has been ripped away from us all, and with it any hope of idealising your country. Which is a genuine and deeply felt loss, I promise you. It’s been really, really horrible seeing you over the last few years as a bunch of thugs, nutters and Halliburton employees have seized control, it’s been like finding out Santa Claus is a child molester. Or something.
But, the key line for me, the bit that almost had me whooping and punching the air, was still
You talk about mixed messages. We're telling other people, "You can't have nuclear weapons," but we're pursuing a new nuclear weapon that we might even contemplate using.
Not this president. I'm going to shut that program down, and we're going to make it clear to the world we're serious about containing nuclear proliferation.
Yeah. No more nuclear weapons, now that’s a defence policy. Leader of the free world. Lead me. |
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