Your Reactions to the First Debate

[mrmitchell]

I watched a little of it.

Kerry is a very strong speaker, from the debates alone. Including all of his speeches, he's still a very strong speaker, just for both sides of the issue.

Bush, now, Bush had all the wierd faces and "um" "uh". No! Some "ums" are fine, but it looked like Bush didn't know what he was gonna say.

[Berzerker]

To some extent, Bush has admitted to poor planning for the rapid victory. Is this admission going to help Bush or hurt him?

Was the planning for a slow victory poor as well?

[Zkribbler]

Kerry did really well the first half hour. He was clear, forceful, focused...presidential. In contrast, Bush was almost cringing; plus, he was stammering, defensive and almost babbling. It looked as if he was really rattled for some reason.

However, as the debate went on, Kerry began to lose focus, and Bush regained his stride.

Still, Kerry over Bush.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by Ned
Flubber, Cooling of relations? Let's put it bluntly. The Canadian government has openly ridiculed the US president. And, this lack of fundamental diplomacy is the fault of the United States?

Just to cheer you up

The Australian opposition leader, Mark Latham, who stands a good chance of winning the national election next weekend:

Called Bush "the most incompetent and dangerous US President in living memory" in March last year.

Called the current Howard government "a conga line of suckholes" for their close support for Bush.

Promised to get our troops out of Iraq by Christmas if elected next Saturday.

Described the FTA with the US a "dud deal". It hasn't entered into force yet, and may not.

Have a nice day

[DRoseDARs]

"Conga line of suckholes" Cute.

[FredKarno]

who is the short arse?

Obvious that Bush is. What difference will this make? No idea. Will wimmin take note? No idea.
Who has the most hair? Who buffs up his hair-do to impress the most?
This is 'democracy'. Give everyone the vote, and this is what you get.
Don't despair!
You yanks won't beleive this:
Democracy is much more healthy (in your place) than here in airstrip-one. We have a monster that makes Bush and Kerry look like nice normal politicians. The truly horrible thing is that the people here are (generally speaking) utterly ****e.

[Alexander's Horse]

Latham has a nice turn of phrase.

[Max Webster]

Didn't see it. Didn't really care to see it.

A couple of puppets spewing their rhetoric.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Ned


Ted, your thumbs up would be appropriate if it was consistent with Kerry's statement at the start of the war.

My thumbs up is appropriate 100% of the time.

Recognize.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Called Bush "the most incompetent and dangerous US President in living memory" in March last year.

Called the current Howard government "a conga line of suckholes" for their close support for Bush.

Don't know much about his politics, but I love his rhetoric.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse


Just to cheer you up

The Australian opposition leader, Mark Latham, who stands a good chance of winning the national election next weekend:

Called Bush "the most incompetent and dangerous US President in living memory" in March last year.

Called the current Howard government "a conga line of suckholes" for their close support for Bush.

Promised to get our troops out of Iraq by Christmas if elected next Saturday.

Described the FTA with the US a "dud deal". It hasn't entered into force yet, and may not.

Have a nice day

Australia is apparently proud that it is a nation of thugs and prostitutes.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Yeah, you need to step up to the white collar crimes. Get some class, people.

[Zkribbler]

Hey, we can transport some Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia and Lincoln Savings & Loan executives. And what about Nixon Administration folks? There's gotta be a few of those guys still around.

Maybe we can trade them for some of those cute koala bears and some of those really cool army hats.

[Drachasor]

Originally posted by Drachasor
Kerry says Bush promised numerous things would be done about Iraq before going to War:

1. Exhaust all other possibilities

2. Build a large and strong coalition as in the first Iraq War

3. He said he would plan it carefully

He also lied about there being Nuclear Weapons or a Nuclear Program (and it was known well before we went in that this wasn't true).

So, Kerry expects Bush to do all of those things, and Bush doesn't and goes in anyway.

Now we don't have enough troops to go around.

Why? No large and strong Coalition, and no careful planning on how to handle the aftermath. If we had both of those, we easily could have done Afghanistan AND Iraq. We didn't and so we can't. A new president is the only chance we have of changing the level of foreign help in Iraq now.

Originally posted by Ned


The DAY the war started, Kerry said his ONLY regret is that Bush did not form a large coalition like his father, but the decision to take out Saddam was correct.

Now, compare Kerry's position then with what Dean said.

Why do I need to compare what Kerry said to what Dean said? I am talking about how Kerry has been steady.

I would like to see a reference to your above comment about what Kerry said though. Clearly the lack of planning on Bush's part only became clear more than a day after the fighting started. This is a major issue.

I'd also note the following:

"In giving the President this authority, I expect him to fulfill the commitments he has made to the American people in recent days--to work with the United Nations Security Council to adopt a new resolution setting out tough and immediate inspection requirements, and to act with our allies at our side if we have to disarm Saddam Hussein by force. If he fails to do so, I will be among the first to speak out."

Which is from a speech Kerry gave to the senate on giving Bush the authority to go into Iraq if needed. I am sure he maintained that the inspectors should be given the time the needed on the ground, especially when they were begging for a few more months.

Quite frankly, we rushed into Iraq with far from sufficient preparation, and now we are in an extremely messy situation. This is just plain incompetence on the presidential level.

Unfortunately Kerry didn't indicate just how incompetent and misleading the Bush administration is. If you recall, Bush said that 10 million registered voters were now in Afghanistan, but what wasn't said was that this is well more than the estimated number of eligible voters there. In other words, wide-spread voter fraud is going on. In addition, there are few international inspectors there to make sure ballots are done legally, and Warlords whom the people are deathly afraid of have been put in charge of the ballots in many areas. These are Warlords that threaten the people to vote for them otherwise they will kill or injure. Warlords that now can look at the voting paper the people hand in before it goes into the ballot. Afghanistan is getting worse, not better, but you wouldn't get that impression from what Bush says.

It is a very similar situation in Iraq, where cities are out of U.S. control and in fundamentalist control, where Americans are dying every day, where we don't have enough people on the ground in almost every area to allow U.S. soldiers to walk down the street and befriend citizens, where we were more concerned about oil than infrastructure or cultural institutions, where more than a year and a half after we went in many places don't have electricity or clean water. According to Team Bush though, everything is going great, and the neglect to mention that they opened up a new war front against terrorism there where innocent Iraqis get killed and the only cost to us is American lives and money spent there that could have been spent on increasing security along our borders, securing nuclear material, and going after real terrorists.

-Drachasor

[Ned]

Drachasor, Kerry repeated what he said on the Day the war started in the debate. Get a transcript.

The Dean position, which Kerry at the time criticized highly, is that Iraq was the wrong war, at the wrong time and the wrong place. That Iraq was a diversion from Afghanistan. Etc., etc., etc.

Kerry now espouses both mutually inconsistent positions in alternate sentences and his supporters apparently cannot understand the English language because they can perceive no difference from "I support the decision to take out Saddam," and "I oppose and have always opposed the Iraq war."