Posted on 10/13/2004 7:34:07 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan
You just wanted to hug the man (even if you don't normally hug men)
1. The president seemed more aggressive in the first half and more thoughtful in the second half. I think he was more effective when he was more thoughtful. I think he comes across very well when he pauses to think and let people think about what he is saying. In that sense, the president finished much better than he started.
2. When the president answered the second question about job outsourcing, I think he should have mentioned the Kyoto treaty. Few things will drive jobs out of our country faster than running up the cost of energy and creating shortages of energy, and John Kerry would cause those problems with his support of Kyoto and similar initiatives.
3. I think part of the president's answer to the gun ban question should have been that he is trying to do things to make America the kind of country that doesn't need an assault weapons ban. A country full of strong families raising good kids is a country that won't have a gun problem. People with a solid education are typically less likely to do violence to others. His answer was good, but I think these are additional points in the president's favor on this question. I still think that the president is wrong to support the gun ban.
4. Of course the president was great on the question about his faith.
5. I don't know whether swing voters will notice, but John Kerry kept going back to previous questions to amend his answers. His jumping that way looked weak.
6. I wish that the president had said plainly that increasing the minimum wage was bad for people who are trying to get into (or back into) the job market.
7. I'm tired of both of these candidates beating the campaign finance reform drum. The First Amendment was written to allow citizens to come together to make their voices heard. Whether the citizens involved are Hollywood leftists or veterans, they have a right to use their own resources to publicize what they believe. We have a right and a duty to evaluate their words with respect to who they are, but the government should not stop them from advertising what they believe.
8. I enjoyed when John Kerry was able to poke fun at himself on the question of "marrying up." Whenever he speaks on national security, I imagine Regis asking him, "John, is that your final answer?" If that question has to be asked, the guy isn't fit to be president. I won't even go so far as to say that I like John Kerry as a person. However, I don't hate him. I don't see him as the evil incarnate the way that I saw Bill Clinton.
9. I don't believe John Kerry's assertion that the middle class is losing ground. I arrive at work every day to a parking lot full of Chevy Silverado and Ford F-150 pickups often driven by people who don't have a college education. I think it's great that these people can afford to buy, maintain, and put gas in these vehicles. Their success speaks to the American Dream being realized by many people. They are the middle class, and if the middle class were all getting socked that badly, then they wouldn't be driving these vehicles and living the lives that they are living.
10. Conversely, I disagree with the picture that the president paints of education grants being able to solve the problem of what someone can do when a job is lost. For those of us who have been on the right track with our careers, there is often no real recovery from the loss of a job. I had two engineering degrees from two major public universities and five years of top tier performance appraisals when I was laid off ten years ago. I've put things back together, but I'll never recover what was lost. I realize that a job loss can cause someone who's on the wrong track to take the actions necessary to get on a better track, but many of us face a very uncertain employment future. The notion that a few education benefits would really be all that helpful rings hollow.
11. John Kerry made a good point when he talked about the injustice of American taxpayers having to subsidize the outsourcing of their jobs overseas. I agree that we have many bad policies that lead to this effect. However, John Kerry will make the problem worse at a faster rate than President Bush will.
Personally, I thought that the first debate was a draw. I didn't like the president scowling, but Kerry didn't do anything to win that debate. I didn't see the middle two debates. I saw only a slight advantage for the president in this debate and only on his slow, thoughtful answers to questions near the end of the debate.
The president is a good man who has earned a second term. I hope that the citizens will give him that term.
Bill
Crush your enemies, See them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!
Kerry: "I WILL get another Assault Weapons Ban when I become President"
HELL, Kerry LOST 90% OF THE NATION WITH THAT REMARK, Just like Congress did after they passed the first assault weapons ban!
The other night during the Cheney-Edwards debate when Edwards said "Have you ever seen this country this divided," I was screaming at the TV "Yes, back in 1971 -- and John Kerry was the reason for that time, too!!!"
Amazing, isn't it?
McAwful is not grinning tonight as he speaks to Alan Colmes. His face is looking very unhappy. These Demons always give themselves away.
Yes. I said the same.
Red meat for us right-wing gun nuts.
I'm sure TER-RAY-ZUH did with joy about getting that pre-nup signed.
Actually the Forbes fanmily of which Jf'nK is a part is NOT the Steve Forbes Magazine family.
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Forbes_family
Many Forbes family members purchased estates in France and Massachusetts, and generally remain influential there, in local or national politics. John Forbes Kerry is a U.S. Senator and currently a candidate for President of the U.S. Though he is a beneficiary of several Forbes family trusts (c. 2002), Kerry has not worked in the private sector for Forbes family business interests and has devoted his life to a career in public service. Kerry's first cousin and friend, Brice Lalonde, an environmentalist activist, is a French Green party politician who was a candidate for President of France in 1981 and currently mayor of Saint-Briac-sur-Mer near the Forbes family estate.
Best line of the night:
"As a matter of fact, your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts."
Laugh out loud priceless.
The facts are simple. The very positions Kerry puts forward are contradictory. He says, on the one hand, that he is going to put in place policies to create new jobs. Then he states he is going to increase upper-bracket taxes and increase minimum wage, both of which are job killers.
He makes promises for all sorts of government programs, but, apart from the tax raises on upper brackets, he offers little else in ways to pay for those programs. That "tax cut money" certainly isn't going to pay for everything he is proposing.
No government interference in Kerry's health plan? Bush knocked that one out of the park. It might not be in the plans for the government to have too much influence, but socialized programs lead to rationing, which will ultimately lead to heavy government involvement in health care.
His foreign policy plans are all over the place and are hardly even worth the time it would take to analyze them. It's been done already far better than I could ever hope to do.
John Kerry would be a disaster as president. A Kerry presidency will mean fewer jobs, higher taxes, more government influence in our lives, anti-life litmus tests on federal judges, and a host of other problems Americans simply do not want.
As my tag line says, John Kerry is certainly the wrong candidate for the wrong office at the wrong time.
The prob. w/the MSM is they're in denial. I have been saying that all of as love this country. President GWB has brought us together. PLEASE VOTE COME NOVEMBER! It will be be IMHO be a landslide. This is only my opinion, but it will happen.
Jim Angle on Fox was saying that all the reporters groaned audibly when Horseface brought up the Vice President's daughter.
Hannity just riiiiiippppped McAuliff a new ass!
Who-hoo!
Sean Hannity went after McAwful with both barrels. Sean is THE MAN!
Please tell us what happened!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.