Bush says, “He talks about middle class tax cuts. That’s exactly where the tax cuts went.” This is where a real moderator would step in and re-tether the proceedings to reality.
Archives for October 2004
Social Security: Q to Bush — where do you get the money?
Bush: “Seniors: You’ll still get your checks.” Problem is for youngsters. “We need a different strategy.” (He looks like he’s struggling very hard to remember the facts — the name “Daniel Patrick Moynihan” seemed to be hauled from the deep lumberroom of memory.)
Kerry: You just heard the president say that young people should be able to take SS money into their own accounts. Disaster. The CBO said there’d bea $2 trillion hole. Today’s workers pay into the system for today’s retirees. President has never explained where the transitional money comes from.
Bush is charging Kerry with “no record in 20 years in the senate” on healthcare.
Kerry: 56 individual bills that I’ve personally written. I was one of the original authors of early childhood healthcare in the 1990s. The president’s wrong.
Salon blogs server, alas, seems to have been brought to its knees by all this activity. I’ll keep posting, but I don’t think you guys are gonna be reading in real time…
Here’s what Bush said about Osama that he couldn’t remember tonight:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven’t heard much from him. And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don’t know where he is. I — I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.
Do you believe homosexuality is a choice? Bush: I just don’t know. Treat people with tolerance and dignity… I believe in the sanctity of marriage. Defense of Marriage Act.
Kerry: “We’re all God’s children. If you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter she would tell you she’s being who she was born as. It’s not choice.”
Bush’s cadence is strangely repetitious, and I’m sorry to report it looks sometimes like he’s literally frothing. The camera is showing some very unflattering accumulations of what I can only describe as excess spittle.
Kerry: “Being lectured by the president about fiscal responsibility is a little like being lectured by Tony Soprano about law and order.”
Kerry: “This president is the first in 100 years not to veto a single bill.” Bush is replaying the “98 votes to raise taxes” canard. It doesn’t seem to matter that this “fact” has been exploded a thousand times.
Bush’s shorthand for “pay as you go” is “paygo”???
Kerry’s talking about reinstating “pay as you go” rules for the budget. He sounds calm and confident about improving things; Bush is not as amped as he was last Friday but somehow fidgety and, despite all the coaching, a little petulant.