Kerry makes clean sweep of debates

After three presidential debates, one thing is certain: The American people have a clear choice for president of the United States. Two men stood on stage. One looked and sounded presidential. The other looked like a little puppy dog, jumping up and down – a wad of spit shining from his right lip – trying desperately to get somebody’s attention and affection. Yet it’s the puppy dog who’s running for re-election.

In the third and final presidential debate, President Bush was at his best, yet he still gave a pretty pathetic performance. When asked to explain or defend his record, he attacked Sen. John Kerry instead. He refused to answer several questions. He repeatedly tried to be funny, making several stabs at lame jokes nobody else understood or found funny, leaving him alone on stage like some extraterrestrial, chuckling to himself, “Heh-heh-heh-heh.” Weird.

The first debate, where Kerry slaughtered Bush, had by far the largest audience. But the third may prove to be the most decisive, since it will be the freshest in memory when those still undecided voters finally get around to making up their minds. Kerry won on both style and substance. He was direct where Bush was evasive. He was cool where Bush was hot. He looked into the camera and offered specific solutions to problems where Bush just rambled.

Next to Iraq, the economy is the big issue in this election. Here Kerry hit his first home run of the evening.

“This is the first president in 72 years to preside over an economy that has lost jobs – 1.6 million jobs,” he charged. “Eleven other presidents, six Democrats and five Republicans, had wars, had recessions, had great difficulties. None of them lost jobs the way this president has.” And Kerry still wasn’t finished: “This president has taken a $5.6 trillion surplus and turned it into deficits as far as the eye can see. The American middle-class family isn’t making it right now.” In rebuttal, Bush did not – could not – refute one thing Kerry said. His only lame reply: “His rhetoric doesn’t match his record.” Bush still does not seem to understand: It is his record, not Sen. Kerry’s record, that this election is all about.

We know Bush refuses to accept the reality of what’s happening on the ground in Iraq. On the issue of jobs, he showed he’s also out of touch with what’s happening on the ground here at home. Asked by Bob Schieffer what he’d say to a worker who lost his job to somebody overseas, Bush offered: “I’ve got policies to continue to grow our economy and create the jobs of the 21st century. And here’s some help for you to go get an education.” Tell that to a well-educated, unemployed factory or office worker in Ohio or Michigan, and you’re lucky if you don’t get punched out.

On another key issue, Kerry pointed out that, according to the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office, Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security would stick taxpayers with $2 trillion in transition costs and cut benefits to seniors now in the program by 25 percent to 40 percent. Kerry himself pledged not to privatize and not to cut benefits. Bush never answered Schieffer’s question about where he would get the money, saying vaguely: “The cost of doing nothing far exceeds the cost of trying to make sure we save the system for our children.”

That was not the only time Bush ducked the question. Was his goal to reverse Roe v. Wade? Bush would only say: “I will not have a litmus test for my judges.” Kerry pledged not to appoint a judge who would undo any rights guaranteed by the Constitution, including the right of choice. Was he in favor of raising the minimum wage? Bush didn’t answer, instead praising the “No Child Left Behind” legislation. Kerry said he’d gradually raise the minimum wage to $7 an hour.

The debate’s most telling moment came when Bush was offered the opportunity to prove his assertion of “bold leadership.” As a candidate, Schieffer pointed out, he had pledged to continue the ban on assault weapons. Why hadn’t he acted as president? To which Bush weakly replied that he’d been “told the fact that the bill wasn’t ever going to move.” So he did nothing. What a weenie. If that’s strong leadership, we don’t need any more of it.