Bush-Kerry III: Return of the King
The debate might have looked even on the surface, but one candidate got his clock cleaned. The scorecard tells all.
by Jonathan V. Last
- Jonathan V. Last is online editor of The Weekly Standard.
Round 1: Will we ever be as safe and secure as we used to be?
Kerry says that, "Yes, we absolutely must be." The problem is that Bush pushed away our alliances. Kerry promises to do things the way FDR, Reagan, and JFK did them. Bush maintains that "if we spread freedom and liberty around the world" we can be safe. "Freedom is on the march" because a 19-year-old woman was the first voter in Afghanistan, he says proudly. He also says that doesn't think he said he "wasn't worried" about bin Laden. I expect a DNC press release any minute now, since this is certainly not true. But still, Kerry has no answer for democracy in Afghanistan.
Round to Bush
Round 2: What are you going to do about the flu?
Bob Schieffer clearly reads USA Today, where America gets its news. Good to know they're on top of things at CBS.
Bush says that "If you're healthy and younger, don't get a flu-shot this year." The president, who refused to call for sacrifice in the war on terror--remember, he said Americans should go shopping--is willing to do so in the war on flu. Kerry says the flu underscores the problem with America's healthcare system. The problem isn't the flu, you see, but the lack of health insurance for kids and working Americans. Particularly in Ohio and Wisconsin. No, this has nothing to do with today's state-by-state numbers.
Round to Kerry
Round 3: Senator Kerry, how can you keep your pledge not to raise taxes?
Kerry says, I'll tell you how--I won't be George W. Bush! His extended answer includes tax loopholes, ceiling fans from China, and comfortable, numbing blather. Bush says Kerry voted for tax increases and against budget caps over and over again in the Senate.
Round to Bush
Round 4: Mr. President, what do you say to someone in this country who has had his life destroyed by one of your Benedict Arnold corporations and their outsourcing?
Noticing how well the stratagem worked for Dick Cheney, the president decides to take this opportunity to talk about education. This isn't lost on Kerry, who says, "I want you to notice how the president switched away from jobs" to talk about education. Trying to nail down the HBO vote, he mentions Tony Soprano.
Round to Kerry
Round 5: Is it fair to blame the administration, entirely, for this loss of jobs?
Magnanimously, Kerry says, "I don't blame the president, entirely." He also says that he won't stop the outsourcing of jobs, only that he'll cut the tax benefit for corporate outsourcing. Following the Bush-Cheney playbook, the president begins his answer with the following: "Whoo! Let me start with the Pell grants." During the rebuttal, Bush breaks the cardinal rule and addresses Kerry directly. He makes a joke about Ted Kennedy, and then laughs at his own joke. No one else does.
Round to Kerry
Round 6: Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?
Bush says, "I don't know. . . . I believe in the sanctity of marriage" and that "activist judges . . . are defining the definition of marriage." He tactfully mentions that Kerry voted against DOMA. Kerry begins promisingly enough, saying, "We're all God's children." And then he talks about "Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian."
Simply put, this is gay-baiting. You know it, I know it--even the writers at Saturday Night Live know it. When John Edwards went down this path during the vice presidential debate, it was possible to conclude that he was just freelancing, but this is despicable. This, from the campaign that every major gay group in the country has lined up to support. This, from the campaign which has attacked Bush for using the Constitution as a political prop. It is shameful. But not nearly as shameful as the silence you hear from America's gay lobby. Imagine, just for an instant, that the roles were reversed and a Republican did this sort of thing to a Democratic candidate's family.
Round to Bush
Round 7: Catholic churches say it would be a sin to vote for John Kerry. Discuss.
Kerry says that he respects those views, but disagrees with them. Talk about being broad-minded. He then says that he "believes" that abortion is between a woman, her doctor, and God--which isn't what he said during the second debate when he called "the belief about life" an "article of faith." The Senator says that "everything" you do in life has to be guided by your faith. But that you can't legislate it. How does that work?
President Bush says that "it's important to promote a culture of life." Except, one supposes, when the issue is capital punishment But never mind. Bush takes the Clinton line about wanting to "reduce the number of abortions" and lists ways to promote life without limiting abortion. It's a pretty good answer.
Round to Bush
Round 8: Who bears responsibility for rising health-care costs?
Bush pins the problem on medical malpractice lawsuits. And, he says confidently, information technology will eventually wring 20 percent of the costs out of the system. If you put that sort of thinking into a 1999 business plan, you could have had yourself a nice little $60 million IPO.
Kerry's not much better. He starts talking about cheap prescription drugs from Canada and look at that--the Yankees are ahead 1-0.
Round to Kerry
Round 9: Senator Kerry, where will you get the money for your health-care plan?
Just an observation: Bob Schieffer does a lot of talking before he gets to his questions. Lots and lots of talking.
Kerry says that you won't have to buy into his wonderful health-care plan if you don't want to. You can keep on paying high premiums and getting lousy service like a moron, if that's what you really want. He cites two leading news organizations in his favor.
President Bush begins his answer this way: "In all due respect, I'm not sure that it's credible to quote leading news organizations about, oh, never mind." Back in New York, without so much as blinking, Dan Rather reaches under his desk and strangles a puppy.
Round to Kerry
Round 10: Mr. President, where will you get the money for Social Security?
Bush says that "we'll honor our commitment to our seniors." But if you're not old enough to fear the wolves baying outside your retirement-home window, then don't count on getting your dough back. Kerry calls the president's plan "an invitation to disaster." At least Bush pretends to have a plan. And Houston is up 4-2 over St. Louis! There follows a half-question, but I'm scoring it as part of this one, since it's on the same topic and nobody's listening anyway. Who ever thought the day would come when we would long for the lock-box?
Round to Bush
Round 11: Bob Schieffer gets email! Oh, and what do you think about illegal immigration?
Bush says that "it's an economic, security, and human rights issue." And pay no attention to the Bill Gertz story in today's Washington Times. He wants a temporary worker card, but is against amnesty for illegals.
Kerry says that "4,000 people a day come across the border" illegally, and then goes on about using iris scans--just like in Minority Report! This suggestion would perhaps be helpful if we lived in the year 2048 and the people being smuggled across the border in the dead of night were courteous enough (1) to have pre-registered their irises with the U.N. World Iris Registration Organization, and (2) to stop by the Iris Scan Kiosks which will be conveniently located every 100 meters along the Chihuahuan Desert and on buoys in the Rio Grande. Maybe John Kerry really doesn't know anything about the borders.
Round to Bush
Round 12: Will you raise the minimum wage?
It's nice to know that with America's military stretched to the limits by Iraq and Afghanistan, with a world-wide war on terrorism, with record-high oil prices, and all sorts of other important events, Bob Schieffer has time not just for the flu, but for this old chestnut. USA Today probably had a story on the minimum was last week, too. Or maybe one of those neat-o pie charts.
Kerry says he will. Bush says he would have supported the minimum wage when Mitch McConnell proposed it. Forty million Americans turn to one another and ask, "Mitch who?" But the president recovers nicely by explaining that the real issue is education, so people will be able to get better-than-minimum-wage jobs.
Round to Bush
Round 13: Mr. President, will you overturn Roe v. Wade?
Bush says that he won't have a "litmus test." Kerry says he won't "appoint a judge to the Court who's going to" undermine a constitutional right.
This is another direct conflict with Kerry answer from the second debate. You'll recall that when asked about the high court a week ago, Kerry said, " I don't believe we need a good conservative judge, and I don't believe we need a good liberal judge. I don't believe we need a good judge of that kind of definition on either side. I subscribe to the Justice Potter Stewart standard. He was a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. And he said the mark of a good judge, good justice, is that when you're reading their decision, their opinion, you can't tell if it's written by a man or woman, a liberal or a conservative, a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian. You just know you're reading a good judicial decision."
Apparently, the only good judicial decision is a pro-abortion judicial decision.
Round to Bush
Round 14: Senator Kerry, what are you going to do about the president's "back-door draft"?
Really, this is just unbelievable. Forget 60 Minutes, what does Les Moonves think about this?
Kerry says that the real answer is to have "real alliances." Not fake ones. Telling the two apart is a lot like separating good and bad judicial decisions. Interestingly, Kerry walks his $200 billion figure back to the more widely accepted $120 million. Good for him.
Bush says that the best way to ease the pressure on U.S. troops is to train Iraqi troops. Then he brings up the global test. In his defense, Kerry says, "I have never suggested a test." Anyone who remembers the first debate must be a little confused, but Kerry wisely distracts them saying that he knows how to regain legitimacy with our own "country-people."
And then, finally, Bush brings up the Gulf War. He explains that when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the whole world was allied against the evil despot--even France and Germany--Kerry still voted against going to war. "Apparently you can't pass any test under his vision of the world."
Round to Bush
Round 15: Mr. President, you said you'd sign the assault weapons ban. No ban was ever presented for you to sign, but you didn't fight to get it passed. Why are you a dirty hypocrite?
It's another CBS gem. Bush, shrugs with a look that says, what do you want me to do? Kerry begins his response by saying, "I'm a hunter. I'm a gun owner." Careful viewers who remember how he first confronted the issue of abortion ("I'm a Catholic") will understand that this introduction means Kerry is about to sell out the interests of hunters and gun owners.
Round to Bush
Round 16: Do we still need affirmative action?
Kerry says no. Just kidding! Of course he believes we still need affirmative action. And not just that. He says sadly that Bush is the first president ever not to meet with the NAACP or the Congressional Black Caucus.
Which is pretty unbelievable. As president, George W. Bush has never stood up to affirmative action even a little bit. He has, in what he has done (and what he has failed to do), supported it. Further, he has practiced his own, informal, yet quite rigorous, version of affirmative action throughout his administration. There is no reasonable way to view his presidency and not come to the conclusion that, like Bill Clinton before him, he carries a serious internal commitment to an administration that "looks like America." All of this in the face of conservatives who disagree with him on the issue. And this is the thanks he gets. This, and maybe 7 percent of the black vote.
Round to Bush
Round 17: Mr. President, what part does your faith play in your policy decisions?
Bush says, "I pray a lot. . . . My faith is very personal. . . . I receive calmness in the storms of the presidency." He also does a fairly good job of differentiating faith from principle, explaining that "I believe God wants everybody to be free."
Kerry tries to go Bush one further. It isn't just freedom that's a gift from the Almighty, he says: "Everything is a gift from the Almighty." Yessiree--torture, mass graves, children's prisons, the mutilation of athletes--they're all gifts. "Frankly," Kerry says sadly, "I think we have a lot more loving of our neighbor to do, in this country, and on this planet." Good point; very Jimmy Carter.
Round to Bush
Round 18: After September 11, the country was united. Now it's polarized. Will you work to unify us again?
Kerry says Bush did a great job post-9/11, but has gone downhill since. Team Kerry has finally started reading Mickey Kaus. Then he worries about "secret meetings in the White House with special interests" and says that he's "going to work with my friend John McCain" to pass campaign-finance reform. Which Bush already signed.
Bush says the partisanship of D.C. has been his biggest disappointment. He and Kerry are in agreement that the problem is "special interests." And then he gives a devastating shot, saying that John McCain endorses him, because McCain thinks Iraq and the war on terror are the most important issues, and that McCain believes he's the best man for dealing with them.
Round to Bush
Round 19: What is the most important thing you've learned from strong women?
"To listen to them," Bush says. He gets a big laugh. Kerry says, "I guess the president, and you and I are three examples of lucky people who married up." This is awkward--and revealing--but Kerry catches himself and, with great wit, adds, "And some would say maybe me so, more than others."
No score, this is the win-a-free-game 18th hole at mini-golf question
IT SAYS HERE that Bush wins decisively on points: 13 to 5. To be honest, I was surprised by this tally since the debate felt pretty even while it was in progress. Watching the return of the president's smirk, I would never have guessed that this last debate was rout. So what happened? Bush did a good job of coming back to Kerry's record, and, in what may be the biggest development of the last couple weeks, he finally put the senator's vote against Desert Storm on the table. And, as Hugh Hewitt and Fred Barnes predicted, three weeks later, the only thing anyone remembers from the first debate is Kerry's "global test."
And for the first time, John Kerry did nothing to help himself. While he didn't have any large-scale mistakes, Kerry didn't do anything positive. He played defense all night. What's worse, anyone who watched all three debates couldn't help but notice massive inconsistencies in many of Kerry's answers, particularly on abortion, Supreme Court justices, and that global test. Finally, don't be surprised if the decision to bring up Dick Cheney's daughter (again) comes back to haunt Kerry.
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