Domestic Policy Debate Tempe AZ

To my surprise I thought Bush won this one.  Bush looked energized and had good answers to most of the questions.  Kerry was on the defensive most of the night regarding his voting records in the Senate.  Kerry also brought up Cheney\'s lesbian daughter - not wise.

Bush hammered Kerry on his voting record and referred to Ted Kennedy as the conservative senator from MA.  I won\'t say it was an ass kicking by any means, but I do feel Bush won the final debate.  Thank God they are over.

Lastly, Bush came across as truly loving his wife.  Kerry barely acknowledged Theresa - kind of strange if you are running for president and you bring up your dead mother instead of your wife.

Originally posted by GigaShadow
To my surprise I thought Bush won this one.

That doesn\'t suprise me.  I\'m no liberal, but even I could tell that Kerry swept the debates.  That sure as hell doesn\'t mean he will win the election.

When Kerry brought up the fact that Bin Laden was not a threat, Bush immediately retaliated saying he was.  However earlier footage showed that he did not feel that Bin Laden was a threat.

I dunno just my observation as a swing voter.

[Living-In-Clip]

To your surprise? You thought Bush won the last one.

Better yet - who cares? There will be internet polls and do they mean a thing ? No.

Bush done better this time, but I don\'t think he won it...And Kerry did acknowledge his wife, but he also acknolweged his mother and to the American public, that means something.

Let\'s get this damn election over with and move on.

[SirMystiq]

Funny though how most of the questions Bush made lame attempts to connect them with education...

Originally posted by Living-In-Clip
Let\'s get this damn election over with and move on.

I agree. I usually like election years but this year I have election fatigue.

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by Ace
I agree. I usually like election years but this year I have election fatigue.

As do I. I think both parties are simply trying to hard, so hard that it is starting to get on American\'s nerves.

Originally posted by Living-In-Clip
To your surprise? You thought Bush won the last one.

Better yet - who cares? There will be internet polls and do they mean a thing ? No.

Bush done better this time, but I don\'t think he won it...And Kerry did acknowledge his wife, but he also acknolweged his mother and to the American public, that means something.

Let\'s get this damn election over with and move on.

Considering domestic issues are the Dems bread and butter, yes I was surprised.  I haven\'t been biased regarding the debates in any way so your insinuation that I have is unfounded.  Did you even watch the debate or did you just catch the highlights?

Bush was much more effective in that he highlighted Kerry\'s voting record and hammered home that Kerry voted against the First Gulf War which was the Dream Team of a coalition - even the Syrians were on board for that one, but it wasn\'t good enough to pass Kerry\'s "global test" apparently.

Also 71 percent of the public care about the debates.  I do agree with you about online polls - they are worthless.  

Kerry did make one major blunder last night and that was bringing up Cheney\'s lesbian daughter.  Totally out of place and wrong.  

Trying too hard and getting on America\'s nerves or just your nerves?

Originally posted by The Hurricane


I dunno just my observation as a swing voter.

And I am Al Sharpton.  You have blatently said you support Kerry - you are not a swing voter.  Either way if you live in MA your vote won\'t count anyway.

[Living-In-Clip]

They are trying to hard, this whole campaign comes down to this.

Bush ..\'Kerry is a flip flopper"

Kerry... \' Bush is a liar and waged the wrong war.."

That\'s all this campaign has become.

Giga, that\'s a good point about Kerry bringing up Cheney\'s daughter. He almost looked like he was uncomfortable doing it. Made my skin crawl a bit. I can just see that slime ball Carville at the debate prep meetings telling Kerry you have to do it.

Originally posted by Living-In-Clip
They are trying to hard, this whole campaign comes down to this.

Bush ..\'Kerry is a flip flopper"

Kerry... \' Bush is a liar and waged the wrong war.."

That\'s all this campaign has become.

This campaign is the ugliest I have ever seen.  Don\'t think it will end when the election is over either.  The dispute over Florida in 2000 will pale in comparison to the crap that is going to happen after this election.

For example:

Colorado has a measure on the ballot that would split their electoral vote along percentages won by either candidate - so if Kerry won 40 percent and Bush won 60 percent - Kerry would get 4 Electoral votes and Bush 6.  This will be challenged in Federal Court - that is a guarantee.  That is only one example of the circus we as citizens have to look forward to after November 2.

Originally posted by Ace
Giga, that\'s a good point about Kerry bringing up Cheney\'s daughter. He almost looked like he was uncomfortable doing it. Made my skin crawl a bit. I can just see that slime ball Carville at the debate prep meetings telling Kerry you have to do it.

To me Kerry looked tired and uncomfortable the whole night.  I don\'t envy either candidate and their hectic campaign schedule.

I agree Kerry does get bad advice from his advisors a lot of times when making statements... the same goes for Edwards.  I don\'t think Kerry is a bad man, I just disagree with his domestic and foreign policy plans - from what we know of them.  I just know he is going to raise middle class taxes for all of these programs he wants to put into place.

Maybe Kerry was more worried about the Red Sox Yankees game :-P

Personally I thought Kerry won this debate, simply because Bush\'s solution to every single domestic problem was Education, which drove me nuts. You can\'t just quit your job of 5.15 an hour and go to Community College, especially if you\'re struggling with a child as it is. Just ridiculous.

See Yuz.

Yeah I thought Kerry walked away with this one hands down. The education thing from Bush was ridiculous. First he under funds schools so they cut programs, I\'ve seen it locally, too, then he claims putting them through school will keep him from having to raise the minimum wage.

Like all those minimum wage jobs will just be empty in the future. If that happens, though, we\'ll be able to fill them with illegal aliens and work cards!

He stood up there and said basically with those two things: I will keep the wage low and allow illegal aliens over the border to take them so employers don\'t have to pay well to get workers.

Then Kerry said something like "He saves $800 billion for the rich, the top 1% of Americans in income, and your kids lose after school programs. You be the judge."

That one got me pumped.

I agree the lesbian line was out of place, though, but I also thought he did a great job of making Bush\'s lame accusations on his voting record seem as ridiculous as they often were.

I thought he did a great job with the story about his mom and the crack about marrying up. After Bush\'s great response, I thought he was doomed, but they both answered that nicely.

The religion stuff was getting to be too much for me to take, but Kerry supported his position on abortion nicely once more, in my opinion.

-Dan

I wouldn\'t call Kerry\'s voting record or Senate record impressive - a joke a best.  Bush was pretty accurate portraying Kerry\'s record.

Kerry responded that he has "actually passed 56 individual bills that I\'ve personally written and, in addition to that, and not always under my name, there is amendments (sic) on certain bills."

Afterward, the Kerry campaign said that the senator has passed 56 bills out of the Senate that he has personally written or co-sponsored. That includes bills that passed out of the Senate and many also passed out of the House that had not been signed into law. In legislative parlance, being a co-sponsor does not mean being a principal in authoring it, but has joined onto it.

According to the Library of Congress, a House measure that was identical to Kerry\'s bill became law on Oct. 29, 2003, during Bush\'s presidency. That measure awarded a posthumanous congressional gold medal to baseball legend Jackie Robinson.

A search of the Library\'s online bill summaries shows that during Kerry\'s four terms in the Senate, four House bills that are identical to Kerry legislation passed both chambers and became law. Other measures that Kerry sponsored into law were 1999 legislation that created a women\'s business center program in the Small Business Administration; 1994 legislation naming the Murphy Federal Building in Waltham, Mass.; and two resolutions in October 1990 and 1991 identifying World Population Awareness Week.

I am also curious as to why so called tolerant people get so offended by religion?  I am not religious at all and I am not offended when someone expresses their faith.  Are they not allowed to show their faith or admit they have faith?

Kerry\'s tax plan is a joke - if he gets elected - plan on paying more even though you aren\'t the 1 percent he is referring to.  I wish Bush would have asked Kerry why he wants the middle class to pay a higher tax rate than Kerry himself pays.  Hopefully, if he were to get elected Republicans would still control the House and the Senate and his grand ideas would be blocked at every turn.

For jobs, raising minimum wage is bad for the economy - always has been and since we are in a recovery period it would be impossible to do now.  Kerry also loves to use the word "outsourcing" a lot and I was amazed last night when he finally admitted he can\'t stop outsourcing.  Education is the only way people will be able to find better jobs and earn more money.  If you want to work at Burger King your entire life - then you have no right to criticize.