Kerry v Bush: the Debates

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By Bob Clasen


Well, if Bush is as big a dunderhead and cowboy as the liberals assures us, it should be very easy for Kerry to cut him to ribbons and turn the election around tonight. After all, how can a candidate who is intellectually deficient, unable to speak English and living in a complete fantasy world about the state of international affairs possibly defeat the knowledgeable, brilliant and nuanced John Kerry? Can't happen.

Various pundits have offered suggestions to Kerry about how he might turn his campaign around. He is acknowledged to be a superior debater, with an excellent memory and the ability to think on his feet and respond immediately to difficult questions.

The problem with Kerry is not a matter of debating technique. It is a problem with clarity of thinking.

A person's speaking (or writing) is limited by the quality of his thinking. If your thinking is not clear and consistent it is impossible for Rhetorical flourish to hide this defect.

I have listened to Kerry answer questions for months now and I cannot determine any consistent position on foreign affairs. His thinking mutates from day to day and sometimes, it seems to be inconsistent even within the same answer.

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Those who doubted whether Iraq or the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, and those who believe that we are not safer with his capture, don't have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be elected president.
December 16, 2003

Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it's the right authority for a president to have. But I would have used that authority as I have said throughout this campaign, effectively.
August 9, 2004

Iraq was "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time."
September 6, 2004

We should not send more American troops. That would be the worst thing.
John F. Kerry, September 4, 2003

If it requires more troops . . . that's what you have to do.
April 18, 2004

I will have significant, enormous reduction in the level of troops.
August 1, 2004

We're going to get our troops home where they belong.
August 6, 2004

We should increase funding [for the war in Iraq] by whatever number of billions of dollars it takes to win.
John F. Kerry, August 31, 2003

$200 billion [for Iraq] that we're not investing in education and health care, and job creation here at home. . . . That's the wrong choice.
September 8, 2004

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How can Kerry persude Americans that he would make a better Commander in Chief when he seems to have no coherent plan for fighting terror, winning the war in Iraq or dealing with rogue nations like North Korea and Iran? No amount of oratorical splendor can disguise the fact that Kerry's thinking on Iraq and the War on Terrorism is a tangle of contradictions.

Bush is accused of being "simple minded." But he is also consistent in his thinking and has a position that can be stated in a few short declarative sentences.

It is not very persuasive to merely say, in conclusionary language that Bush is "wrong" and he would do "everything" "different" and "better" without giving any detail.

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