Round 10: Bush: Will you keep spending like a drunken sailor? Bush says that the dot.com bubble popped before he got here, and now we're in a war, and the deficit isn't his fault. Kerry is still trying to convince the audience that he's not proposing HillaryCare. He's completely on the defensive. This is a squeaker, because let's be honest: Neither one of these guys is going to even pretend to be responsible once they're president. Round to Kerry
Bush is not responsible his economic policies were not even implemented yet and Kerry had no real response
Round 11: Kerry: Will you pinky swear that you're really, really, really not going to raise taxes on families making less than $200K? Kerry: "Yes!" Bush: "It's just not credible. . . . Of course he's going to raise your taxes." The gist of Bush's argument seems to be, John Kerry will raise your taxes; I'll just keep ballooning the deficit. Round to Kerry
Bush nailed him on raising taxes 98 times
Round 16: Bush: Who would you appoint to the Supreme Court? Bush, says, "I'm not tellin'." Then he goes into Dred Scott. This president should, perhaps, stay away from judicial history. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have mentioned the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Round to Kerry
Bush explained he wanted Judges who uphold the constitution and don't legislate from the bench. Kerry went into some goobligook about not being able tell if a judge is a liberal or conservative.
Round 18: Bush: Name three wrong decisions you've made. This question is killing President Bush because clearly, he doesn't think he's done anything wrong. He allows that he might have made a mistake or two about "meetings." Then he names three decisions he made right. Finally, he manages some cold-eyed introspection: "You want to know what mistakes, I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not gonna name them. Don't wanna hurt their feelings on national TV." This is a deeply revealing window into Bush's mind. It isn't very appealing. At all. Kerry says that Saddam would "not necessarily be in power" had he been president for the last four years. Boy, does he want to lose this round. He doesn't. Round to Kerry
Bush nailed it when he pegged the question as a coercion to get him to admit Iraq was a mistake.
Round 10 "Will you keep spending like a drunken sailor?" Our family has a long history as sailors in the U.S. Navy, including present active duty. Every dime spent on the military is worth whatever spending is necessary to keep us safe. Besides, why do people always pick on sailors?