Transcript Debate #1

foxnews ^ | Nov. 30, 2004 | Various

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

JIM LEHRER, ANCHOR AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, PBS' "THE NEWSHOUR": Good evening from the University of Miami Convocation Center in Coral Gables, Florida. I'm Jim Lehrer of "The NewsHour" on PBS.

And I welcome you to the first of the 2004 presidential debates between President George W. Bush, the Republican nominee, and Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee.

These debates are sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Long Transcript.

[KantianBurke]

Thank you for posting this. Those of us who are TV deprived can now take a look :>

[USA_Soccer]

Who won the debate polls:

http://www.cnn.com

http://www.time.com/time/

http://www.msmagazine.com/debate_poll.asp

http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/debatei/

http://www.boston.com (Look for "survey: Who did better in the debate?")

http://www.newsday.com (Look for "Poll: Rate the candidates")

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6123733/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6028629/ (vote under Polls -> MSNBC)

http://www.nbc5i.com/index.html

http://argusleader.com

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/

http://nbc25.com/webpoll.asp

http://www.tbo.com/

http://www.newsnet5.com/index.html

http://www.channelcincinnati.com/index.html

[JLS]

Here was the homerun to me:

"My opponent just said something amazing. He said Osama bin Laden uses the invasion of Iraq as an excuse to spread hatred for America. Osama bin Laden isn't going to determine how we defend ourselves.

Osama bin Laden doesn't get to decide. The American people decide."

[Jim_Curtis]

BUSH: Actually, we've decreased funding for dealing with nuclear proliferation about 35 percent since I've been the president

Thought he said "increased".

[OrangeDaisy]

My favorite line of the debate! I haven't seen or heard it mentioned anywhere yet.

GWB: I just think trying to be popular, kind of, in the global sense, if it's not in our best interest makes no sense. I'm interested in working with our nations and do a lot of it. But I'm not going to make decisions that I think are wrong for America.

[OrangeDaisy]

Thought he said "increased".

He did. Transcriber must have heard it wrong.

[Shermy]

KERRY: Well, let me just say quickly that I've had an extraordinary experience of watching up close and personal that transition in Russia, because I was there right after the transformation. And I was probably one of the first senators, along with Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire, a former senator, go down into the KGB underneath Treblinka Square and see reams of files with names in them.

Did he pull a Sandy Berger and stuff the "Agent Nantucket Sailboard" file in his pants?

[Mike Fieschko]

LEHRER QUESTIONS:

As determined by a coin toss, the first question goes to you, Senator Kerry. You have two minutes.

Do you believe you could do a better job than President Bush in preventing another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States?

LEHRER: New question, Mr. President, two minutes.

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?

LEHRER: New question, two minutes, Senator Kerry.

"Colossal misjudgments." What colossal misjudgments, in your opinion, has President Bush made in these areas?

LEHRER: New question, Mr. President. Two minutes.

What about Senator Kerry's point, the comparison he drew between the priorities of going after Osama bin Laden and going after Saddam Hussein?

LEHRER: 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?

LEHRER: New question, Mr. President. Two minutes.

What criteria would you use to determine when to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq?

LEHRER: All right, new question. Two minutes, Senator 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?"

Are Americans now dying in Iraq for a mistake?

LEHRER: 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?

LEHRER: 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.

LEHRER: New question, Mr. President. Two minutes.

Has the war in Iraq been worth the cost of American lives, 1,052 as of today?

LEHRER: Speaking of your plan, new question, Senator Kerry. Two minutes.

Can you give us specifics, in terms of a scenario, time lines, et cetera, for ending major U.S. military involvement in Iraq?

LEHRER: Mr. President, new question. Two minutes. Does the Iraq experience make it more likely or less likely that you would take the United States into another preemptive military action?

LEHRER: New question. Two minutes, Senator Kerry.

What is your position on the whole concept of preemptive war?

LEHRER: New question, Mr. President. 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.

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?

LEHRER: New question, two minutes.

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.

LEHRER: 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?

LEHRER: New question, two minutes, Senator 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?

LEHRER: 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?

LEHRER: 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?
LEHRER: Thirty seconds, Mr. President.

BUSH: You know my opinion on North Korea. I can't say it any more plainly.

LEHRER: Well, but when he used the word "truth" again...

BUSH: Pardon me?

LEHRER: ... talking about the truth of the matter. He used the word "truth" again. Did that raise any hackles with you?

[Petronski]

I've studied WWII, and I've studied Soviet Russia. When he said "Treblinka Square" I perked up and said "WTF?"


But I presumed he could not say something so idiotic, so I dismissed it as my own auditory failure.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Your search - "Treblinka Square" - did not match any documents.

[Mo1]

He talked about that on Meet the Press a while back

At the time he said Russia and the KGB wasn't a threat to us during the cold war because they had an old phone system

[motife]

Hugh Hewitt has the best analysis at his site.

Bush was clear, direct and understandable.

Kerry was evasive, contradictory, and slippery.

[Mo1]

Looks like the Liberals all got Terri's memo

PLEASE

President George W. Bush 18% 14715 votes

Sen. John Kerry 78% 64874 votes

Evenly matched 4% 3089 votes
Total: 82678 votes

[Petronski]

LOL

The Lubyanka was the monolithic headquarters of the Tsar's secret police. After the October Revolution, the NKVD (Lenin's secret police) took over, and as the NKVD evolved into the KGB and the GRU, the Lubyanka became famous as a place of torture and evil and the desperate prayer for death.

Lubyanka Prison was situated on what the Reds renamed Dzerzhinsky Square, which was later renamed Lubyanka square after that bastard Dzerzhinsky also fell from favor.


Lubyanka and Treblinka might sound alike to a Boston Brahmin, but for Pete's sake, they are completely different.

[CalRepublican]

"Colossal misjudgments." What colossal misjudgments, in your opinion, has President Bush made in these areas? Boy that was a tough cross-examination there. . .Lehrer might has well have stolen a line from the Simpsons--Sen. Kerry, your campaign has the momentum of a runaway freight train; why are you so popular? I duuno. I have mixed feelings about how this went. Kerry lied and said a lot of things that plainly were inconsistent with what he has said previously, but he was able to keep Bush onthe defensive. If I were Bush I would have responded the first question by saying that a man who missed over 80% of his intelligence committee votes was in no position to tell anyone how to run homeland security. I think Kerry got emboldened a little after Bush let him get away with a few things. He wouldn't shut up about North Korea because Bush didn't jump on him immediately by saying Clinton let them get the nukes. I just think that, for a guy with Kerry's record in the Senate, he should have been a lot more on the defensive tonight than he was.

[Mike Fieschko]

My take: this debate, and the others is going to be spun by both sides.

I think Rove has a lot of jewels in Kerry's statements, to develop the 'flip-flop' / 'whichever way the wind blows' theme.

That will tend to move public opinion towards Bush and towards the idea that Bush was better in this debate.

[WifeMotherDaughterSister]

You're right he did.

[Fedora]

"Did he pull a Sandy Berger and stuff the "Agent Nantucket Sailboard" file in his pants?"

Same thought I had.

[CalRepublican]

I've no doubt Rove will hammer Kerry with a lot of what he said tonight over the next few weeks.

Maybe it's the lawyer in me. . .I would have hammered Kerry more tonight. Some lawyers will simply let a witness have the rope to hang himself--I like to stick the knife in, a dull one, and twist it, while they're hanging.

I'd have nailed Kerry when he said Pakistan let OBL go. I guess Pakistan must not be one of the islam nations Kerry thinks we should be relying on. I'd have hammered him over and over again on stuff like that.

The problem with the way the debate went was that, flip flop or not, Kerry got licks in. They were lies, but they were licks. He could have been kept on the defensive enough to where he couldn't make a point about anything.