Posted on 10/01/2004 8:00:38 AM PDT by blogblogginaway
In order asked ..........
To Kerry ... Do you believe you could do a better job than President Bush in preventing another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States?
To Bush ... Do you believe the election of Senator Kerry on November the 2nd would increase the chances of the U.S. being hit by another 9/11-type terrorist attack?
To Kerry ... "Colossal misjudgments." What colossal misjudgments, in your opinion, has President Bush made in these areas?
To Bush ... What about Senator Kerry's point, the comparison he drew between the priorities of going after Osama bin Laden and going after Saddam Hussein?
To Kerry ... We'll come back to Iraq in a moment. But I want to come back to where I began, on homeland security. This is a two-minute new question, Senator Kerry.
As president, what would you do, specifically, in addition to or differently to increase the homeland security of the United States than what President Bush is doing?
To Bush ... What criteria would you use to determine when to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq?
To Kerry ... Speaking of Vietnam, you spoke to Congress in 1971, after you came back from Vietnam, and you said, quote, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
To Bush ... New question, Mr. President, two minutes. You have said there was a, quote, "miscalculation," of what the conditions would be in post-war Iraq. What was the miscalculation, and how did it happen?
To Kerry ... New question. Senator Kerry, two minutes. You just -- you've repeatedly accused President Bush -- not here tonight, but elsewhere before -- of not telling the truth about Iraq, essentially of lying to the American people about Iraq. Give us some examples of what you consider to be his not telling the truth.
To Bush ... Has the war in Iraq been worth the cost of American lives, 1,052 as of today?
To Kerry ... Can you give us specifics, in terms of a scenario, time lines, et cetera, for ending major U.S. military involvement in Iraq?
To Bush ... Does the Iraq experience make it more likely or less likely that you would take the United States into another preemptive military action?
To Kerry ... What is your position on the whole concept of preemptive war?
To Bush ... Do you believe that diplomacy and sanctions can resolve the nuclear problems with North Korea and Iran? Take them in any order you would like.
*********Next comes some 'clarification' questions and and this exchange..........
LEHRER: I want to make sure -- yes, sir -- but in this one minute, I want to make sure that we understand -- the people watching understand the differences between the two of you on this.
You want to continue the multinational talks, correct?
BUSH: Right.
LEHRER: And you're willing to do it...
KERRY: Both. I want bilateral talks which put all of the issues, from the armistice of 1952, the economic issues, the human rights issues, the artillery disposal issues, the DMZ issues and the nuclear issues on the table.
LEHRER: And you're opposed to that. Right?
BUSH: The minute we have bilateral talks, the six-party talks will unwind. That's exactly what Kim Jong Il wants. And by the way, the breach on the agreement was not through plutonium. The breach on the agreement is highly enriched uranium. That's what we caught him doing. That's where he was breaking the agreement.
Secondly, he said -- my opponent said where he worked to put sanctions on Iran -- we've already sanctioned Iran. We can't sanction them any more. There are sanctions in place on Iran.
And finally, we were a party to the convention -- to working with Germany, France and Great Britain to send their foreign ministers into Iran.
Questions resume .......
To Kerry ... Senator Kerry, you mentioned Darfur, the Darfur region of Sudan. Fifty thousand people have already died in that area. More than a million are homeless. And it's been labeled an act of ongoing genocide. Yet neither one of you or anyone else connected with your campaigns or your administration that I can find has discussed the possibility of sending in troops.
Why not?
To Bush ... New question, President Bush. Clearly, as we have heard, major policy differences between the two of you. Are there also underlying character issues that you believe, that you believe are serious enough to deny Senator Kerry the job as commander in chief of the United States?
To Kerry ... If you are elected president, what will you take to that office thinking is the single most serious threat to the national security to the United States?
To Bush ... Just for this one-minute discussion here, just for whatever seconds it takes: So it's correct to say, that if somebody is listening to this, that both of you agree, if you're reelected, Mr. President, and if you are elected, the single most serious threat you believe, both of you believe, is nuclear proliferation?
To Bush ... All right. Mr. President, this is the last question. And two minutes. It's a new subject -- new question, and it has to do with President Putin and Russia. Did you misjudge him or are you -- do you feel that what he is doing in the name of antiterrorism by changing some democratic processes is OK?
To Bush ... Well, but when he used the word "truth" again...
talking about the truth of the matter. He used the word "truth" again. Did that raise any hackles with you?
Here is the transcript from which I based this post . ..http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004a.html
Thanks a million for doing this. Shows just how biased Lehrer is. Did he wink at Kerry at the end. He did shake his hand. He didn't shake Bush's hand, IIRC.
Now, a sitting President should be expected to defend his positions. But Kerry has a long record of service, and he was not asked to defend his record, nor, for the most part, to defend his statements during this campaign. That's not fair at all.
Who watches the watchmen? Who can check Lehrer to see if he is balanced? No one.
I would prefer that each campaign comes up with X number of questions for the other candidate, and Lehrer just pick them out of a hat and read them. Or something.
I have a question and don't know where else to post this. In response to the question, "Has the war in Iraq been worth the cost of American lives, 1,052 as of today?", and after President Bush's response, John Kerry said, "I understand what the president is talking about, because I know what it means to lose people in combat."
It sounds to me that he is saying that U.S. servicemen were killed during combat situations that he was in, if not specifically under his command. Does anyone know if in his four or five months in Vietnam he was involved in any combat where Americans were killed? I haven't heard of any such incidents, but his comment makes it sound as though he has first-hand experience losing men in combat. I know he had one or two friends who were killed in combat (nowhere near where he was), but surely he wouldn't be referring to those deaths by saying he knows what it means to lose people in combat.
Bush was prepared. Bush is just not a good speaker. The people know that. They will be looking at the content of what was said if anything. Bush won the debate on that. Not on slick debating skills.
This may sound like a tinfoil theory but I honestly wonder if Mr. L of the liberal PBS didn't pass the questions on to the Kerry camp before the debates. When I compare the way Kerry answered Diane Sawyer on some of these same questions just one day before to his "sparkling" responses at the debate, I am suspicious. Anything that looks too good to be true, usually is.
Many softballs for Kerry.
Hey!: Bush did fine last night.Kerry even lied answering the question about calling Bush a liar ....
This one is running around the threads fast!
Spewing the same thing over and over...
Looks like he touched the third rail...
Naw, he tinkled on the third rail.
Oh my gosh! I always thought Leherer was a fair man. But, these questions are just to put Bush on the defense! Slanted to favor Kerry!
Thanks for doing this....
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