Debatable

If you didn't watch the great debate, you can find all the coverage you want on the internet and in the papers and on the TV. And you can find exactly what you want to find. If you're still undecided about which of the Bonesmen you want to vote for, you'll do well to check many different accounts. Or just read the transcript (even if you watched the debate) and make up your own mind. For my money, it was totally predictable. I kept wishing Bush would get testy enough to stomp off stage like he did at that press conference, but his handlers must have had him on the right combination of drugs.

All I'm going to offer you here is a bit of an email from Greg Palast.

Mr. Tall and Mr. Small
By Greg Palast

Thursday September 30, 2004

Our President told the debate audience, "You cannot lead if you send mexxed missiges." I certainly hope not.

But that's exactly what we got. You watch our President, the nervous hand-hiding, the compulsive water-glass-fondling, the panicked I-wish-I-had-a-whiskey look, and you think, "My god, this is the guy who's supposed to save us from al Qaeda."

...In Iraq, "We don't have enough troops there," said the tall one. Really, Senator? We should send MORE? Not exactly: Mr. Tall's got a plan to get our troops out. He'll have a big meeting of "allies," and after he talks with them, they will all jump up and volunteer to send THEIR kids to Fallujah. France and Indonesia and Kuwait can't wait to ship in soldiers and extra body bags. Right. We love you, John, but there’s no band of Hobbits coming to the rescue -- that's just a movie.

Well, he looked kind of "presidential." But given the line-up includes Nixon, Ford and two Bushes, that's not a big trick.

I'm sorry. I know I'm supposed to stand up and cheer that John Kerry didn't get Gored. In fact, if you look at presidential debates the way the media plays it, as something akin to Olympic figure skating, where you score for the competitor’s style, you could say Kerry won.

But I don't feel WE won anything.

I mean, when Jim Lehrer asked how the candidates would make America safe from terrorists, Mr. Tall said he'd hire more firemen. And add more cops. Maybe he thought he was running for mayor.

It was disappointing, but then Mr. Small's answer was downright frightening. We have to "stay on the offensive," and "stay on the offense," and "I repeat, stay on the offense." We have no doubt that Mr. Small can be extraordinarily offensive, but even he can't take his offensiveness to the bad guys if he doesn't know where they are. And on that point, he's clueless.

...Mr. Tall could have won my vote with two words. It's the two-word answer John Kerry gave three decades ago when asked the same question -- “How can we get our troops out of a disastrous war?”

Then, the clear-minded, tall young man said, "In ships."

I know there is something to be said for the thought that we can't pull out now after we've created such a disaster, but the converse of that is that when you find you are digging yourself into a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. Any presence we have there now is going to ensure that the disaster continues to worsen. They both know that.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.


Transcript at KATU, Portland