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I thought John Kerry clearly won the first debate, lost the second, and did worse in the third. Most Americans, however, apparently disagreed, since many polls showed that respondents thought Kerry won all three. We hear of mayhem daily in Iraq; news on the economic front is mixed; and an entire host of surrogates has defamed George Bush in a manner not seen in decades during a political campaign. Why, then, does Kerry gain little traction, trail in most polls, and perhaps even start to slip further? After all, he is a hard campaigner, has a razor-sharp memory, speaks well,...

Did you catch John Kerry's gaffe in the third debate? No, not the one about Mary Cheney being born a lesbian. That abusive and cynical outburst produced gasps in living rooms around the nation and certainly cost Kerry votes. But there was a more serious gaffe in the debate. It revealed how Kerry's vision of government is at odds not just with that of George Bush but with that of America's founders. In answer to a question about gay marriage, Kerry said: "Because we are the United States of America, we're a country with a great, unbelievable Constitution, with rights...

"Fair Game" From the October 25, 2004 issue: Does John Kerry really think the American people will believe that he singled out Mary Cheney because he "was trying to say something positive about the way strong families deal with this issue?" by William Kristol 10/25/2004, Volume 010, Issue 07 "We're all God's children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as." --John Kerry, responding to Bob Schieffer's question, "Do you believe homosexuality is a...

In a bit of political poetic justice, it appears that polls showing the Bush Cheney ticket surging ahead of Kerry Edwards started last Thursday, just hours after Kerry announced that Dick Cheney's daughter was "a lesbian" in the final presidential debate. "Overnight polling showed a sharp gain by George W. Bush," columnist Robert Novak reported in his Monday column, noting the race had been dead even after Bush's first disastrous debate performance until that moment. While Democratic Party officials publicly say Kerry did nothing wrong by identifying Mary Cheney's sexuality, outside the Kerry camp party regulars were horrified. According to...

ctober 18, 2004 OP-ED COLUMNIST The Lowest Blow By WILLIAM SAFIRE ashington The memoir about the Kerry-Edwards campaign that will be the best seller will reveal the debate rehearsal aimed at focusing national attention on the fact that Vice President Cheney has a daughter who is a lesbian. That this twice-delivered low blow was deliberate is indisputable. The first shot was taken by John Edwards, seizing a moderator's opening to smarmily compliment the Cheneys for loving their openly gay daughter, Mary. The vice president thanked him and yielded the remaining 80 seconds of his time; obviously it was not a...

OP-ED COLUMNIST Washington — The memoir about the Kerry-Edwards campaign that will be the best seller will reveal the debate rehearsal aimed at focusing national attention on the fact that Vice President Cheney has a daughter who is a lesbian. That this twice-delivered low blow was deliberate is indisputable. The first shot was taken by John Edwards, seizing a moderator's opening to smarmily compliment the Cheneys for loving their openly gay daughter, Mary. The vice president thanked him and yielded the remaining 80 seconds of his time; obviously it was not a diversion he was willing to prolong. Until that...

Many people expected George W. Bush to fare poorly in the debates on domestic issues. But he seems to have done better than he did in the first debate, which was devoted solely to foreign policy. In the second and third debates, he scored some points by characterizing John Kerry as a Massachusetts liberal. But he did more than that. He did what he did in the 2000 campaign and as president: He redefined the issues. Democrats tend to win on domestic issues if the question is: Who is going to spend the most money? Voters believe, plausibly, that Democrats...

PRESIDENT Bush has surged to a six-point lead in his battle to stay at the White House — amid a backlash against election rival John Kerry among women voters. Senator Kerry’s popularity plunged after he singled out vice-president Dick Cheney’s daughter as a lesbian in the final head-to-head TV debate. The comment while answering a question on beliefs about homosexuality enraged her family. Mum Lynne Cheney demanded an apology after accusing Kerry of a “tawdry political trick”. Bush now leads his Democrat challenger by 50 points to 44 — his strongest lead for three weeks, according to a poll by...

Despite Kerry's angel-faced sanctimony, this was a piece of premeditated gay-baiting (John Edwards used the same gambit in his debate with Cheney) whose transparent purpose was to keep some of the GOP's evangelical voters from turning out on Nov. 2. This was a miscalculation. Since the debate, the Christian right has been rallying to the side of Mary Cheney. Well-known political preachers like Jerry Falwell and James Dobson have gone out of their way to defend her right to privacy. Conservative radio talk shows and Web sites have been flooded with denunciations of Kerry and support for Mary. This reaction...

IF YOU WATCHED the third and final Presidential debate Wednesday night without a Washington think tank scholar’s command of domestic policies and their pricetags — in other words, like a normal, feeling person — it would be difficult not to acknowledge that President Bush won. (Finally, after losing the first and tying in the second, according to the chattering class.) And he won in exactly the way one would expect him to beat Sen. John Kerry: By out-authenticating him. No one could expect Bush to out-maneuver Kerry, the hybrid Boston Brahmin and master of Washington double-speak. Bush has enough trouble...

Executive Summary—Connecting The Dots - www.watch.org The third and final debate further sharpened the prophetic and moral differences between President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John F. Kerry as America received a clear view of how the candidates stand on the issues of homosexual marriage, abortion and faith. While both candidates declared their faith on national television, America will decide its place in prophecy by selecting either a leader that follows the tenets of God Almighty or one that supports abominations. There are four main issues that will determine America's place in prophecy: abortion, homosexuality, acknowledging God, and Israel...

Senator Kerry's mention of the vice president's daughter, in answering a question about homosexuality in America, threatens to break the momentum he has established in recent weeks. President Bush's most conservative supporters invoked one phrase yesterday to describe Mr. Kerry's mention of Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter during the last presidential debate: Low blow. And the vice president agreed.

SCHIEFFER And our first question goes to Senator Kerry. Sir, your spending plans will cost over a trillion dollars. Your combined tax plans will cost $500 billion. How are you going to balance the budget? KERRY Bob, I'm glad you asked me that question, but before I dodge it I'd like to thank you for moderating this debate, I'd like to thank Arizona State University for being such wonderful hosts and I'd like to thank Dick Cheney's daughter for being a lesbian - in case anybody didn't know. Bob, as you know, this nation is on the brink of an...

John Kerry says he's surprised by the flack over his lesbian comment. The media now in full gear scrambling to put out the fire on the Cheney lesbian comment made by John Kerry. He's not surprised by the flack over this. Folks, don't for a minute think -- you know, Edwards did it, Kerry did it. It means it's calculated. It means they've got some sort of focus group data that makes them think it's going to help them to do it. There's no other way to look at this. Kerry knows plenty of people who are lesbian and gay...

WASHINGTON - Political consultants get six-figure salaries to figure out what turns voters for or against a candidate. Political scientists write books and scholarly papers about campaigns, focusing on the strategies that produced victory -- and defeat. You don't need an advanced poli-sci degree to know that the run for the White House depends on a couple of key voting groups: each candidate's ideological base and independents or swing voters, who often are undecided until the last minute. Appealing to both at the same time is tricky business. The just-completed presidential debates illustrate the point. President Bush and Sen. John...

Mary Cheney Labeled With the “L” Word by John Kerry October 15, 2004 11:55 PM Apparently John Kerry believes in pre-emptive strikes when it comes to the “L” word. The third debate was set up for President George W. Bush to tag Mr. Kerry with the “L” word, dubbing him as a liberal from Massachusetts. John Kerry would have none of that, after all, he made it clear in debate number two that he doesn’t believe in labels when he let loose with his whiny “stop labeling me” comment to President George W. Bush.

Nicolle Devenish, communications director for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said Thursday that John Kerry will pay a heavy political price for what he did. Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife, said, "This is a bad man." The crime? John Kerry in the final presidential debate suggested that we are all God's children and used Mary Cheney as an example of a healthy gay person loved by her family. The response from the Cheneys and the Bush campaign has been blatantly political. In fact, it is they who are using Mary Cheney -- using her now to score points against Kerry and...

I think the presidential election will ultimately turn on which of the candidates the public trusts more, particularly because we are at war. For any number of reasons, that does not bode well for Sen. Kerry. It's not just that President Bush is more of a people person and down to earth, or that John Kerry is an out-of-touch elitist. President Bush is also far more comfortable in his own skin than Kerry, which was most obvious in their respective answers to the spiritual question in the third debate. President Bush fully embraced the loaded question "What part does your...

The momentum is swingng back. Can you feel it! Bush did well in the third debate, but all anyone is talking about and all that will be remembered is the Mary Chaney is a lesbian comment. This pissed off decent people, and really pissed off on the fence moms. Without them, Kerry can not win. And fatso Edwards spouting off and piling on only made things that much worse. The polls are all starting to tick in Bush's direction, and the other side is starting to panic and get hysterical because they are undisciplined and they know there will be...

No apology from Kerry over Cheney remarks Washington, DC, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Sen. John Kerry offered no apology Friday for bringing up the sexual orientation of Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter in this week's presidential debate. The reference to Mary Cheney being a homosexual came Wednesday when Kerry was asked if he believed homosexuality was a matter of birth or choice. The Cheneys have said the reference was gratuitous and inappropriate within the context of the question. "It was meant as a very constructive comment, in a positive way," Kerry said in a CNN interview. "I respect their love...