Want to get in the mood for Halloween? Want to be scared? Read Ron Susskind’s article about the President in Sunday’s New York Times.
“This is why [Bush] dispenses with people who confront him with inconvenient facts,” Bartlett went on to say. “He truly believes he’s on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence.”
Kevin Drum has a good summary of the situation regarding the bulge in the President’s back including photos from all three debates.
What is it?
From the Freeway Blogger:
“YE-HA” IS NOT A FOREIGN POLICY.
NOT ONE MISTAKE?
NAME ONE THING HE’S DONE RIGHT. JUST ONE.
WHAT WOULD JESUS BOMB?
MARTHA CAPTURED. OSAMA FREE.
1188 AMERICANS HAVE DIED IN IRAQ TO DATE. WHEN WILL YOU KNOW ONE OF THEM?
“There’s a lot of talk in political circles about an amendment to the U.S. constitution so people born in other countries can run for president. Apparently this is part of Bush’s plan to outsource the presidency.”
Jay Leno
“During the debate, Bush was asked by a lady to name three mistakes he’s made. And Bush responded, this debate, the last debate and the next debate.”
Bill Maher
If Bush could be honest with himself he could have answered the mistakes question easily and, I think, won a lot of points. For example:
At the time I thought it was best to reassure the children, but in retrospect I believe I should have calmly excused myself and devoted my immediate full attention to the 9/11 attacks.
Or:
On 9/11 there were concerns for my safety, but in retrospect I believe I should have overruled them and ordered Air Force One directly back to Washington.
How hard could it be? What’s wrong with him?
At Slate, William Saletan has a solid analysis of Kerry’s blown at bats last night. It’s well-worth reading.
Out in the real world, this is a very standard question. Bush’s answer shows (a) enormous contempt for the questioner, (b) contempt for the viewers who would like to hear the answer to the question, (c) a pathological aversion to looking back at his own performance, all coupled with (d) amazing arrogance.
Would you hire someone who gave you an answer like this during a job interview? There’s something very wrong with this guy.
[DeLong’s post has the full transcript from Friday night.]
Indeed, responding to the “what are your weaknesses” type question is something any successful candidate for a job will have practiced so that it can be turned into a positive — “I used to burn out from working too hard but have learned to pace myself now so that I stay consistently more productive.” Or, “I take my work too seriously and have had to learn sound stress management techniques.”
This was a likely question for Bush (he’d heard it before). Why can’t he answer it? Even if he wanted to use the bad appointments response (which is terribly pathetic coming from a leader), why not at least explain what he’d learned, which types of people not to appoint, etc.
Kit Seelye, blogging Friday night’s debate for The New York Times:
9:03 p.m.
Did Kerry just swipe Bush’s back to see if there was a transmitter?
What if there had been a transmitter and Kerry discovered it. What would Kerry have done?
The New York Times wonders about The Mystery of the Bulge in the Jacket.
What was that bulge in the back of President Bush’s suit jacket at the presidential debate in Miami last week?
According to rumors racing across the Internet this week, the rectangular bulge visible between Mr. Bush’s shoulder blades was a radio receiver, getting answers from an offstage counselor into a hidden presidential earpiece. The prime suspect was Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s powerful political adviser.
When the online magazine Salon published an article about the rumors on Friday, the speculation reached such a pitch that White House and campaign officials were inundated with calls.
First they said that pictures showing the bulge might have been doctored. But then, when the bulge turned out to be clearly visible in the television footage of the evening, they offered a different explanation.
“There was nothing under his suit jacket,” said Nicolle Devenish, a campaign spokeswoman.
“It was most likely a rumpling of that portion of his suit jacket, or a wrinkle in the fabric.”
Ms. Devenish could not say why the “rumpling” was rectangular.
Nor was the bulge from a bulletproof vest, according to campaign and White House officials; they said Mr. Bush was not wearing one.
We should attack Canada as they have drugs of mass destruction.
Transcript from debate October 8, 2004:
Mr. Bush: I haven’t yet. Just want to make sure they’re safe. When a drug comes in from Canada I want to make sure it cures you and doesn’t kill you.
A speech worth watching from Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio).
Good to know Bush wouldn’t appoint Roger B. Taney to the Supreme Court.
Transcript from debate October 8, 2004:
Mr. Bush: Uh, let me give you a couple of examples I guess of the kind of person I wouldn’t pick….Another example would be the Dred Scott case, which is where judges years ago said that the Constitution allowed slavery because of personal property rights. That’s personal opinion. That’s not what the Constitution says.
The creators of This Land have given us a new political animation, Good to Be In DC (set to the tune of Dixie).
From Opinions You Should Have:
The Federal Election Commission has ordered John F. Kerry to inadvertently direct viewers to a pro-George W. Bush website during Friday’s town hall debate. On Tuesday, during the Vice-Presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards, Cheney mistakenly directed viewers to a site that urged visitors not to vote for President Bush, GeorgeSoros.com. …
Initially the Commissioners were unsure of which appropriately pro-Bush site they were going to require Kerry to mention, but by late this afternoon, they had settled on one.
RalphNader.com.
Nieman Watchdog (a journalism support group) has a list of “Some questions worth asking at the town-hall style presidential debate Friday in St. Louis.” It’s a good list.
Link via Dan Froomkin.
Many think VP Burns Cheney did a slow fade as the debate proceeded Tuesday night. James Wolcott knows why:
Seinfeld scholars will remember the episode in which Elaine hired Jerry’s father for a job a J. Peterman, much to her regret. He didn’t know how to get rid of him without actually firing him. Do what I do at the Yankees, George advised. Schedule meetings late in the afternoon. These guys get up at dawn and by lunch they’re completely wiped. Elaine followed George’s counsel, and Jerry’s father had a conniption fit at the first meeting that dragged all the way past 5 PM.
I think we saw that last night. Cheney, like everyone else in the Bush White House, gets up at birdless dawn and by early evening shows unmistakable signs of testiness and snappishness. He had one good early round in last night’s debate, but faded long before the finish….
From The Donkey via Sideshow.
In NewMexiKen’s home county of Bernalillo, any registered voter may vote at the County Clerk’s office (8am-4pm) from October 5th through October 30th.
I’d go vote early if I wasn’t undecided.
“Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session.”
— Vice President Cheney during debate last night.
Actual fact: In nearly four years Cheney has presided on just two Tuesdays (out of 127).
Furthermore, Edwards has presided twice during that time also.
Info via Kos.
Had Dick Cheney or John Edwards stood on their chairs and shouted “liar, liar pants on fire,” it might have surprised viewers, but it would not have changed the tenor of Tuesday night’s debate.
Marc Sandalow, San Francisco Chronicle
If Cheney and Edwards actually had stood on their chairs and shouted “liar, liar pants on fire” it would have been a lot more fun to watch. They could put that kind of debate on pay-per-view and I’d tune in.
“Last week, Senator Kerry was eight points behind President Bush, today he is three points ahead. Is this the kind of indecision we want in a president?”
Announcer in a mock Bush-Cheney ad, “Late Show With David Letterman”
Also from Marshall:
In a rather churlish moment, Cheney told Edwards that the two of them had never met before tonight’s debate, despite the fact the Edwards is a serving senator and Cheney’s the body’s presiding officer.
But as Atrios and no doubt many others have now pointed out, one can easily find a citation on the web of a prayer breakfast the two men attended together in February 2001. And the Dems are already circulating a picture from the event showing the two standing right next to each other.
Here’s the photo from 2001.
Update: According to Dan Froomkin, AP has identified three meetings:
• “On Feb. 1, 2001, the vice president thanked Edwards by name at a Senate prayer breakfast and sat beside him during the event.
• “On April 8, 2001, Cheney and Edwards shook hands when they met off-camera during a taping of NBC’s Meet the Press, moderator Tim Russert said Wednesday on Today.
• “On Jan. 8, 2003, the two met when the first-term North Carolina senator accompanied Elizabeth Dole to her swearing-in by Cheney as a North Carolina senator, Edwards aides also said.”
From Josh Marshall:
And then there’s another rather humorous screw-up. Cheney clearly wanted to send folks to factcheck.org; but he sent them to factcheck.com.
So close and yet so far.
Factcheck.com is George Soros’s website.
Some guys are just lucky, I guess. Soros spends millions on the campaign. And Cheney sends him a blizzard of more free media.
Update: In case you’re unaware, billionaire Soros is a leading anti-Bush advocate.
From Charles Pierce (writing at Altercation):
So it’s a hard job being president, is it? In all my days, which go back to the end of Second Ike, I have never heard an incumbent president mention how difficult the job is. They’re always “honored by the trust” the American people — or, in this case, Antonin Scalia — have placed in them. I mean, as I have learned in this big old new book of political history that I brought with me, FDR served for 16 years, through the Great Depression and World War II, and it was only at the very end that he even made mention of the fact that he was in a wheelchair. That C-Plus Augustus made (by my count) nine references to the difficulty of his job last week is the best measure that he was coming a little unstrung. What did he possibly hope to gain by it? The sympathy of some laid-off sheet-metal worker? The understanding of some wounded vet? A pat on the head from Karen Hughes?
It’s supposed to be hard, as Tom Hanks says in that women’s baseball movie. If it wasn’t hard, everybody would do it. And, as we’ve come to learn, not everybody can.
