Debate 2: Kerry
My favorite Bush moment:
Grabel: President Bush, during the last four years, you have made thousands of decisions that have affected millions of lives. Please give three instances in which you came to realize you had made a wrong decision, and what you did to correct it. Thank you.
Bush: [But] history will look back, and I’m fully prepared to accept any mistakes that history judges to my administration, because the president makes the decisions, the president has to take the responsibility.
He will not admit to making any mistakes. Not allowing the United Nations inspectors to finish their work? Grossly exaggerating the evidence behind your statements regarding Iraq’s mythical WMD? Ignoring the advice of General Eric Shinseki regarding the necessary troop levels? That whole “Mission Accomplished” photo op?
Bush continued to push the fundamentally flawed terrorist subtraction logic:
That’s why we’re bringing Al Qaida to justice. Seventy five percent of them have been brought to justice.
I wasn’t aware that Al Qaida publishes a continuously updated list of active members. That is awfully nice of them. Continuing this generosity, they have apparently suspended all recruiting, so we only have 25% to go!
Bush and Cheney continue to distort Kerry’s position regarding the right of the United States to act in opposition to bodies such as the United Nations:
My opponent said that America must pass a global test before we used force to protect ourselves.
How dumb does George W. Bush think voters are? Anyone who watched the first debate saw and heard Mr. Kerry clearly say:
I’ll never give a veto to any country over our security.
Later…
No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America.
But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you’re doing what you’re doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.
John F. Kerry, first 2004 presidential debate
Back to tonight’s debate and the continued denial regarding the actual threat posed by the doubtlessly evil, but toothless Saddam Hussein:
But Saddam Hussein was a unique threat.
Saddam Hussein was a risk to our country, ma’am.
George W. Bush at the second 2004 presidential debate
Because?
Bush: Saddam Hussein was a threat because he could have given weapons of mass destruction to terrorist enemies. Sanctions were not working.
Kerry: Mr. President, just yesterday the Duelfer report told you and the whole world they worked. He didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, Mr. President.
Exactly. You can’t give to terrorists what you don’t have. The resources that have been invested in Iraq would have been more wisely used to pursue those that actually attacked the United States. Everyone agrees that Saddam is an evil bastard and that it is a good thing that he has been removed from power. The question is whether it was the right time to do it. Even the most powerful military on the planet has finite resources.
Tonight’s showing by Bush was stronger than last Thursday, but that set the bar pretty damn low.
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