Some people seem surprised that Kerry won all three debates. Why? The right so fiercely caricatured Kerry as a wishy-washy wuss with no core that when the real man stepped forward to present himself, there was a profound disconnect between the portrayal and the reality. The American people saw that Kerry is an intelligent, experienced public servant of strong convictions that he effectively communicated to the country.

This was obviously Bush’s best performance of the three, but he still lost simply because the facts aren’t on his side.

1. There are around 600,000 fewer employed Americans than when Bush took office. No amount of spinning will change this fact. Way to go, Hoover.
2. What was a budget surplus is now a $413,000,000,000 budget deficit. The Bush administration has increased discretionary, non-defense spending 8.2% per year, more than any of the previous six administrations. While Kerry’s delivery of the line wasn’t particularly great, I agree that Bush lecturing him on fiscal discipline is akin to Tony Soprano lecturing on law & order.
3. Job growth isn’t keeping pace with workforce growth. The economy needs to generate 135,000-150,000 per month to keep up.
4. Many of the jobs that have been created are lower paying than those that have been lost.
5. There were 1.3 million more people living in poverty in 2003 than there were in 2002.

I sent up my budget man to the Congress, and he says, here’s how we’re going to reduce the deficit in half by five years. It requires pro-growth policies that grow our economy and fiscal sanity in the halls of Congress.

George W. Bush at the 3rd presidential debate

The Republican party controls both houses of Congress. Why haven’t they enforced “fiscal sanity”? Why has Mr. Bush refused to use the power of the presidential veto to encourage “fiscal sanity” in the Congress under his party’s control?

Getting into speculative territory, I think there may be lead in the pipes at the White House and the Vice Presidential residence because George W. Bush seems to have the same mild form of dementia that plagues his running mate.

Dick Cheney claimed to have never met Senator John Edwards prior to the Vice Presidential debate, despite there being video footage of them sitting side by side at a public event several years ago.

As evidence of Mr. Bush’s troubled memory, there is this:

KERRY: Six months after he said Osama bin Laden must be caught dead or alive, this president was asked, “Where is Osama bin Laden? ” He said, “I don’t know. I don’t really think about him very much. I’m not that concerned. “

We need a president who stays deadly focused on the real war on terror.

SCHIEFFER: Mr. President?

BUSH: Gosh, I just don’t think I ever said I’m not worried about Osama bin Laden. It’s kind of one of those exaggerations.

Presidential Debate #3

It is a good thing there is video footage and the official transcript at the White House site to remind Mr. Bush that he said just that. I just hope that those links work on the same Internet that Bush uses.

Despite Mr. Bush’s apparent lack of concern about him, I’m looking forward to the “surprise” of Osama bin Laden being unveiled shortly before November 2. As important as I think capturing or killing bin Laden is (if only for psychological reasons), it will not affect my vote. Bush has screwed up too many other things for me to be swayed by the announcement of bin Laden’s capture or confirmed death, as welcome an event as that would be.

Updated to include a source for the budget deficit statistic.