Posted on 09/30/2004 7:48:13 PM PDT by wagglebee
Presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer showed once again Thursday night why top aides to President Clinton used to call him "our moderator" when presidential debate time rolled around in 1996.
The questions, which Lehrer announced at the outset had been authored exclusively by him, were supposed to help the American people determine which candidate would be a better steward of U.S. national security in a post-9/11 world.
But there were no queries to Sen. Kerry about his long Senate record of voting against defense appropriations; or his sponsorship of a bill to cut CIA funding by 6 billion dollars a year after terrorists struck the World Trade Center in 1993; or Kerry's support of the nuclear freeze movement during the height of the Cold War.
Kerry wasn't asked about why he teamed up with Jane Fonda to protest the Vietnam War while his band of brothers were still on the battlefield, or why he met with enemy leaders in Paris, or why he accused fellow soldiers of being "monsters" and "war criminals."
Most Americans would consider the answers to those questions extremely relevant to the selection of any U.S. commander-in-chief during a time of war.
But not Jim Lehrer. Instead, he focused on Iraq with question after question that suggested Bush had blown it.
Here's a sampling:
"You said there was a miscalculation in Iraq," Lehrer asked the president. "What was it and how did it happen?"
"What colossal misjudgments, in your opinion," Lehrer asked Kerry, "has President Bush made in these areas [Iraq]?"
To Bush: "Mr. President, has Iraq been worth the cost in American lives -10,052 - I mean 1,052 up to today?"
To Kerry: "You've repeatedly accused President Bush of lying to the American people on Iraq. Give us some examples of the president being untruthful on Iraq?"
Despite his focus on Iraq, however, Lehrer never asked why Kerry voted to authorize the war, then turned around and voted against the legislation to fund it. Or why he voted against authorization for the first Gulf War, even though President Bush's father had amassed just the kind of coalition Kerry says the U.S. needs now.
Likewise, the PBS host declined to ask Kerry about comments in recent days from French and German officials who announced they have no intention of sending troops to Iraq, even if Kerry is elected.
That's quite a stunning development, given that Kerry's Iraq policy rests almost solely on the promise that he'll persuade Old Europe to pitch in and take some of the load off U.S. forces.
But not stunning enough, apparently, to interest Mr. Lehrer.
Amen. And the bit asking Bush to give moral evaluation of Kerry? Come on. This was supposed to be a debate for pete's sake.
Exactly. After all, it's the liberal media that keeps telling us over and over and over that we are a 50/50 country. So from now on, we want 50/50 lib/conservative moderators for these debates.
Well, yeah. The debate was supposed to be about Iraq, not Vietnam.
And they also initially said the SwiftVet ads would only hurt Bush and go nowhere.
Lehrer was good. Limbaucher should ask himself why didn't Bush bring up any of the points he mentioned in his article. Why the heck didn't Bush mention all the military bills Kerry opposed while Reagan was winning the cold war. Who the hell is advising Bush.
Mary Matlin needs to go.
After what See BS pulled with it's fake documents, this is not out of the realm of possibility. I don't know how it could be proved though. Unless Leahr was asked to take a lie detector test or something. Leahr's "10,052 oops , I mean 1052 lives lost in Iraq" seemed deliberate too.
The rats pulled a dirty trick with the camera angles and the position of the podiums. The orange lines in the background of camera shots of Bush were farther apart than the ones in Kerry's shots which made Bush look smaller than Kerry.
Here's another tin foil theory: Was the "over tan" done on purpose? When I first heard that Kerry was orange, I couldn't believe he would make the same mistake Gore made. Kerry is a dork at times, and he's definitely an elitist, but he's not stupid. He's a smooth talker. The "orange tan" set up the expectation with the public and possibly president Bush, that Kerry would be like Gore- stressed out, emotional, loose cannon. Instead Kerry comes out looking smooth and calm, well versed in his answers (even if they were outright lies.)- Just by not looking like Gore, Kerry scored points( Have no idea if there is any truth to this, but if it was planned ahead of time, hats off to Kerry's people for a very clever scheme.)
Love the idea of having Hannity and Colmes moderate , that's the only way it will be fair. I'm tired of slanted, boring debates done by MSM lefties. Why don't they try something different? The pols are whining about how few people participate, more would if they made it interesting.
IMO president Bush won the debate overall. Kerry looked/sounded good, but he flip flopped on Saddam being a threat in the same debate. I thought Bush scored a TKO on Kerry's asking allies to join him in the "wrong war" or "diversion" and how using terms like these does not win allies, does not support the troops. Liked the "global test" comments too.
He also brought the point home, that, no matter what Kerry says or how he looks saying it, he can't be trusted to stay the course. I think the "depends on the outcome" answer kerry gave, when asked if going to Iraq was worth it, on Diane Sawyer's show disqualified him from being CIC outright.
Unfortunately it's going to be a horse race. I would like to think that people won't fall for Kerry's "Clinton-esque" style, but they voted for Bill twice. (Bush needs to study Clinton- every thing Kerry does is textbook Clinton, not Gore.)
Newsmax nailed that one
This was patently obvious to anyone with more than 3 working brain cells! I hope and pray that everyone saw through this;but I doubt that "everyone" did.
Read the transcript or watch it again...
POTUS did a fabulous job.
He is our president and he made that clear.
He did not need to get nasty with sKerry.
He zinged him with class.
Welcome to FR. We enjoy this kind of thought-provoking response here.
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw...you're a TROLL and not even a good one at that.
What kind was it?
You can't sleep either, huh?
By staying strictly on a single message Bush left virtually nothing that could be twisted or used against him elsewhere.
As for Lehrer, I wouldn't question for a minute if he had tipped off Kerry. But as you said proving it would be difficult.
Here's a thought for an mischevious freeper though - make up a fake memo from Lehrer to Kerry with a fake attached transcript of all the questions - something along the lines of "John - I've got what you asked for. Pay careful attention to the 4th and 17th questions. I'll sugarcoat your senate record on one and I'm gonna accidentally inflate the casualty numbers on the other. Good luck tonight! - Your pal Jim"
Just remember to photoshop his signature in, make sure the th's are all superscripted, autocenter the entire document, put it in comic san serif font, run it through the copy machine a couple times, take it down to kinkos, and fax it to CBS.
A troll who said he was an "x-republican" who is voting for al-Q'erry. Your everyday no-imagination troll. Wasn't even fun.
The site is faster for my poky dialup when I go on during non-prime-time. I can't keep up with the live threads, lol. Anyway, I get to watch the event in real time!
I have dial-up, too, so I sympathise
Today is Friday. Trolls should be thick on teh ground, especially in the evening.
We might get a better one later.
I've noticed the mods often let us have one to play with for a while on Fridays....
Just so that people stop POSTING VANITY THREADS! Poor Admin Mods and JimRob.
A lot of trolls, along with a lot of legit new FReepers who nevertheless didn't bother to read the rules on the way in.
I know.
A lot of our old-timers who really should know better are doing that, too.
Overly excited I guess.
I thought Mary Matlin was on Cheney's staff, not Bush's.
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