NYC Letter: Beer and Politics

The third presidential debate found us in a very noisy Eastside bar (scil., Bliss Bar, honest injun) in the company of several LGF Lizardoids and the Iowahawk (please go read and bookmark him). Introductions were shouted, hands shook, drinks ordered.

The Iowahawk did a laying on of hands, a little something he picked up from John Edwards. Applying his healing palm to the polished foreheads of several attendees, he commanded them to, "Get up and walk! Get up and walk!" Amazingly all were fully ambulatory (though by the end of an evening of open-bar drinking many restored legs had gone wobbly, their Edwards magic spent).

Our little huddle was swept up to the bar's private precincts for what was advertised as a "Debate Party", sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition. (We have a nifty "Bush 2004" button in Hebrew courtesy of a very nice fellow named Ron.) The bar chow consisted of several large aluminum pans of cocktail weenies and mystery amuse-gueules. The lounge was dark except for the irregualr glow of the large plasma screen TVs. And there, at 9:00P, the presidential trilogy resumed and, in a fog of alcohol, 90 minutes later concluded.

The transcript can be found here. Below is the skim.

Mr. Kerry opened with his things-to-do list for al-Qaeda:

And there are a host of options that this president had available to him, like making sure that at all our ports in America containers are inspected. Only 95 percent of them — 95 percent come in today uninspected. That's not good enough.

People who fly on airplanes today, the cargo hold is not X-rayed, but the baggage is. That's not good enough. Firehouses don't have enough firefighters in them. Police officers are being cut from the streets of America because the president decided to cut the COPS program.

Mr. Bush's rejoiner was good, better than good:

As a result of securing ourselves and ridding the Taliban out of Afghanistan, the Afghan people had elections this weekend. And the first voter was a 19-year-old woman. Think about that. Freedom is on the march.

We held to account a terrorist regime in Saddam Hussein.

In other words, in order to make sure we're secure, there must be a comprehensive plan.

My opponent just this weekend talked about how terrorism could be reduced to a nuisance, comparing it to prostitution, illegal gambling. I think that attitude and that point of view is dangerous. I don't think you can secure America for the long run if you don't have a comprehensive view as to how to defeat these people.

Once again Mr. Kerry let Mr. bin Laden escape from Tora Bora:

When the president had an opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, he took his focus off of them, outsourced the job to Afghan warlords, and Osama bin Laden escaped.

Mr. Kerry, a professional 4-month Vietnam war veteran with medals sanitized of symbolic value, surely knows better than these dilettantes.

So those were the plate-setters.

Mr. Kerry's affected Olympian remove failed him throughout the evening and set him up for Mr. Bush's more direct and to-the-point attacks. Mr. Bush also had at the ready several effective put-downs, nose tweaks, and take-it-to-the-man head thumps. Here's a sampling:

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 EX-aggerations.

* * * * * * * * * *

BUSH: He voted to violate the budget cap 277 times. You know, there's a main stream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank. As a matter of fact, your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts.

* * * * * * * * * *

BUSH: I want to remind people listening tonight that a plan is not a litany of complaints, and a plan is not to lay out programs that you can't pay for.

* * * * * * * * * *

BUSH: He's been a senator for 20 years. He voted to increase taxes 98 times. When they tried to reduce taxes, he voted against that 127 times. He talks about being a fiscal conservative, or fiscally sound, but he voted over — he voted 277 times to waive the budget caps, which would have cost the taxpayers $4.2 trillion.

He talks about PAYGO. I'll tell you what PAYGO means, when you're a senator from Massachusetts, when you're a colleague of Ted Kennedy, pay go means: You pay, and he goes ahead and spends.

* * * * * * * * * *

BUSH: Two things. One, he clearly has a litmus test for his judges, which I disagree with.

And secondly, only a liberal senator from Massachusetts would say that a 49 percent increase in funding for education was not enough.

* * * * * * * * * *

BUSH: In 1990, there was a vast coalition put together to run Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. The international community, the international world said this is the right thing to do, but when it came time to authorize the use of force on the Senate floor, my opponent voted against the use of force.

Apparently you can't pass any test under his vision of the world.

* * * * * * * * * *

BUSH: [M]y opponent keeps mentioning John McCain, and I'm glad he did. John McCain is for me for president because he understands I have the right view in winning the war on terror and that my plan will succeed in Iraq. And my opponent has got a plan of retreat and defeat in Iraq.

Mr. Kerry picked up the gay-baiting where John Edwards left off:

We're all God's children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as.

More on this here.

Then this curiousity:

And I've met wives who are supportive of their husbands or vice versa when they finally sort of broke out and allowed themselves to live who they were, who they felt God had made them.

We guess they were not themselves when they made their marriage vows. Why should marriage have more solemnity than a for-hire contract or a lounge pick-up?

Asked about Catholic archbishops' condemnations of Mr. Kerry's embrace of abortion, Mr. Kerry beggared his Catholicism:

I am a Catholic. And I grew up learning how to respect those views. But I disagree with them, as do many.

I believe that I can't legislate or transfer to another American citizen my article of faith. What is an article of faith for me is not something that I can legislate on somebody who doesn't share that article of faith.

I believe that choice is a woman's choice. It's between a woman, God and her doctor. And that's why I support that.

First, no, Mr. Kerry is not a Catholic in any meaninful sense as he willfully takes a pass on the moral life of the Church.

Second, Catholic teaching on abortion is not an article of faith. It is a decretal prohibition. If Mr. Kerry really believes what he says and says what he means, he cannot in conscience legislate against murder, theft, or false witness which the Church also prohibits based her scripturally revealed truth.

Third, Roe v. Wade established no constitutional procession of woman, God, and doctor. His friends at NARAL will certainly find this Kerry trio an alarming novelty.

So who won? Follow the money.

Sure sign Mr. Bush won -- no news network led with headlines pronouncing Mr. Kerry the winner. Oh, but then there was the DNC's fairy tale network.

Taking a page from the Terry McAuliffe playbook, Soxblog, after a self-serving post of rationalizations, wrote his post-debate analysis before the debate so he could watch the Red Sox in the ALCS playoffs. Bad choice.

I did not watch the second debate. For those who'd like a complete set of debate commentary, check out Jane Galt's live-blogging here.

Now the campaigns move to the huskings, where Mr. Kerry will dwindle without prime time exposure and Mr. Bush will go from strength to strength with each rally.

Posted by Damian at October 14, 2004 05:23 PM