Category: 2004 Election

In the spirit of balanced analysis, let me offer this counter-point to xian’s crafty post-debate “spin.” Yes, fine, I’ll grant his central thesis: Sure. OK. Bush was off. But leave us not forget: Kerry was on. Really, the guy had a job to do, and dang if he didn’t nail it. He was smart, strong,…

Watched the debate tonight. Bush seemed to be off his game. His timing was off. I had the distinct impression he was waiting for the audience-response he gets at his handpicked rallies and was nonplussed when his repeated lines and that hangdog mugging he does were met with silence. Kerry did good. Tonight was important.…

Bush bringing Allawi from Iraq to the US to do a joint press conference with him: Not politicizing the war. Kerry accusing Bush of misleading the country about the true scope of problems in Iraq, and disputing statements made at the Bush/Allawi joint press conference: Politicizing the war. Any questions?

“That’s why I said to the Taliban in Afghanistan: Get rid of al Qaeda; see, you’re harboring al Qaeda. Remember this is a place where they trained — al Qaeda trained thousands of people in Afghanistan. And the Taliban, I guess, just didn’t believe me. And as a result of the United States military, Taliban…

and we fisk them with extreme prejudice (when we’re bored).

A little down about the state of the election? There’s a nifty collection of current polls plus some comparisons to a few prev. elections, here. Puts things in some helpful perspective. And really, given the fantastic month Bush has had and the mess that we’re told the Kerry campaign is, given all those heart-tugging John…