Tornado Alley (PROG)

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(COMTEX) B: COLUMN: Bush fumbling, bumbling at debate ( Brown Daily Herald, U-WIRE )

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Oct 01, 2004 (Brown Daily Herald, U-WIRE via COMTEX) -- We knew it was going to be bad, but I don't think anyone expected it would be this bad. Did George W. Bush not realize that Thursday was the night of the debate? Was he out clearing brush on the ranch in the morning when Karl Rove called him up and told him to get his butt out to Coral Gables?

The president of the United States does not do well at press conferences, and for him the first presidential debate was the press conference from hell. In addition to his usual inability to answer the question asked, Bush had a tall, lanky conscience over his right shoulder pointing out that his decisions have actually not made the world any safer from terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.

If it looked like Jim Lehrer was giving Bush a hard time, it was because that is exactly what his job was. This election, like all elections in which an incumbent is running, is fundamentally a referendum on the incumbent -- not his opponent. That's why Lehrer's questions focused on Bush's actions in office, not whatever attacks the Right makes on John Kerry, as in "his positions are too nuanced" or "maybe he got shot in Vietnam, but he didn't get shot very hard."

And when the debate is truly about the issues, George Bush is going to lose every time. He knew he lost, too. Every time the camera went to a split-screen during a Kerry response, Bush looked like a child getting a scolding. When his turn came up, he replied with the same, tired insistence that Kerry was demoralizing the troops and somehow vacillating on his position on Iraq, despite Kerry's consistent repetition of his stance: Saddam Hussein was a threat, but not a threat that warranted an enormously costly war.

During the split screens for Bush's answers, Kerry looked a little childish, too. But unlike Al Gore's exasperated sighs, Kerry's trademark was an impish smile. This is not to be confused with the toothy, disingenuous grin he sometimes flashes. He was truly giddy with anticipation of responding to the drivel coming from the president's mouth. Maybe that's a fault, but I was smiling, too.

Other than that, Kerry was perfect. He was clear, he was forceful and he didn't speak a word of French. He outlined sensible alternatives to both Saddam Hussein's initial threat and the continuing violence in Iraq. He presented a damning indictment of Bush's missteps in North Korea and Iran. And by insisting we beef up homeland security and increase the size of the military, Kerry erased the notion that he is a weak-willed foreign-policy liberal.

Bush had a few good moments. His discussion of Libya was effective and surprisingly short, considering it is his only true foreign policy victory. He did a nice job of name-dropping those foreign leaders he couldn't recall in 2000, and showed that he was on a first-name basis with "Vladermer." And his memorized closing statement was clear and effective, but it was such a departure from his earlier off-the-cuff bumbling that he appeared to be a different person.

John Kerry walked away with this thing. And you know what? The Bush team insisted that foreign policy be the subject of the first debate, because it is theoretically the president's strong suit. So no matter how badly he got beaten Thursday night, the best is yet to come.

By Ethan Ris
http://www.browndailyherald.com

(c) 2004 Brown Daily Herald, Brown U. and U-WIRE

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