CHUMP CHECK 2004

DISASTER FOR BUSH: America Clearly Sees At Last That The
Emperor Is Naked

Rambling, Incoherent... and It Was Bush Wiping The Sweat Away
(and Drinking Heavily)

by Betsy R. Vasquez
OCTOBER 1, 2004 - How bad was it for Bush?

So bad that FOX News' website didn't even run any poll. So bad that all
Matt Drudge could try and boast about on his website was that some Democrat
called it a draw. So bad that even Bush's people could only try to say,
Yeah, he lost, but so what.

Other media outlets have been telling you this election would be close and
that the debates might be even as well.

We hate to say it (not that much) but we told them so.

Bush got shellacked so badly it was astounding. He was like a wounded
animal desperate for a place to hide but not able to find one.

For the past week the right-wing had been joking about how Kerry was a
sweater, would sweat during the debates. But it was Bush who the camera
saw wiping sweat from his brow. And drinking heavily from his water glass
repeatedly. And fumbling through his papers, desperate to find something
else to say besides the one or two talking point phrases he could manage to
remember.

There was no escaping or hiding the fact that Bush was not even remotely
deserving of being on that stage. He was rambling, incoherent. His
answers wandered not only off topic but out of comprehensibility. In
short, all of the things the President's handlers have been adeptly hiding
from the public - that the emperor truly is butt naked - got stuck right
out there in the bright light.

And now America knows.

Even the Gallup poll, which took its usual heavily Republican biased
sample, said Kerry blew Bush away.

These were supposed to, according to the non-Moderate Independent media,
be Bush's strong points: foreign policy and style. He got clobbered on
both.

He gave answers that were flat out dishonest, huge gaffes that will
certainly be brought back to haunt him.

"The A.Q. Khan network has been brought to justice," said President Bush,
bragging about his national security record. (see: Washington Post
transcript)

Excuse me? How about reality: US Supports A Q Khan Pardon

As this story reports, "The United States has supported Pakistan President
Pervez Musharraf's decision to pardon scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who
confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea."

This man, who gave nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran, and North Korea, Bush
let him get pardoned - and then stood before America last night and said
he, "has been brought to justice."

Bush even said at one point, "I didn't need anyone to tell me to go to the
UN."

President Bush's fantasy world has crumbled right before the American
public. Last election he came across as one of the average people. This
time he showed himself to be one of the "special" children who ride the
little yellow bus.

And President Bush had a Freudian moment from hell, when he was trying to
counter Kerry's charge that Bush confused Saddam with Osama and incorrectly
attacked Iraq for 9/11 instead of just going after Osama.

Bush replied, "Of course we're after Saddam Hussein -- I mean bin Laden."

President Bush didn't even come prepared with an zingers, the usual
Republican-fed crack lines.

No, on this night it was Senator Kerry who was calm, forceful, relaxed, in
complete control - and personable and funny.

Kerry brought down the house when he talked about Tora Bora, saying the
President even "outsourced" the job of going after Bin Laden when we had
him cornered..

"Just yesterday," said Kerry, "General Eisenhower's son, General John
Eisenhower, endorsed me; General Admiral William Crown; General Tony
McBeak, who ran the Air Force war so effectively for his father -- all
believe I would make a stronger commander in chief. And they believe it
because they know I would not take my eye off of the goal: Osama bin
Laden.

"Unfortunately, he escaped in the mountains of Tora Bora. We had him
surrounded. But we didn't use American forces, the best trained in the
world, to go kill him. The president relied on Afghan warlords and he
outsourced that job too. That's wrong."

What happened last night was exactly what we said would happen way back in
May in articles like these (see: Look, We Told You Months Ago Kerry Would
Win By A Landslide and John Kerry, Leader Or Loser?) The Bush people had
been making the horrible mistake of running against John Kerry as if he
were Al Gore or Mike Dukakis, whiny sort of weak liberal types who let
themselves be bullied. We warned that Kerry wasn't one to let himself get
bullied, and that he had strength, charisma, and charm that the press was
underestimating. No, he was not the smooth-talking southern charmer like
Bush or Clinton, but he was the quiet, cool Northeastern-type charmer.

Last night, the Bushies went up there seemingly without a plan except to
have Bush repeatedly - and we mean repeatedly and repeatedly and
repeatedly, until he began to sound like Rain Man - say that Kerry,
"changes positions." "He sends mixed messages." "He changes positions."
"Mixed messages." "He changes positions." (We are not exaggerating here
- I am accurately reflecting the number of times Bush mumbled these phrases
in incoherent desperation.) "Mixed messages." "Mixed messages." "Mixed
signals." "Mixed signals." "Mixed messages." "Mixed messages."
"Waver."

And he only stopped babbling that mantra when he was saying not one, not
two, but seven times, that Kerry had called Iraq, "...the wrong war at the
wrong time at the wrong place," and not seven, not eight, but eleven times
that it is, "hard work," fighting terrorist (in addition to pointing out
twice people were, "working hard," at it.

So people are sitting there, seeing Kerry give actual, coherent answers,
and Bush is lost, sweating, pounding water likes it's JD, fumbling through
papers desperately, sneering and looking miserable and angry, like he wants
to leave, and giving answers that are incoherent rambles laced with flat
out lies or misstatements.

Over and over, "This is the wrong war at the wrong time at the wrong
place." "Hard work" "This is the wrong war at the wrong time at the
wrong place." "Hard work" "Hard work" "This is the wrong war at the
wrong time at the wrong place." "Hard work" "This is the wrong war at
the wrong time at the wrong place." "Hard work" "This is the wrong war
at the wrong time at the wrong place." "This is the wrong war at the
wrong time at the wrong place." "Hard work" "This is the wrong war at
the wrong time at the wrong place." "Hard work" "Hard work" "Working
hard." "Hard work" "Hard work" "Working hard." "Hard work"

Only interrupted by, "Changes positions." "He sends mixed messages." "He
changes positions." "Mixed messages." "He changes positions." "Mixed
messages." "Mixed messages." "Mixed signals." "Mixed signals." "Mixed
messages." "Mixed messages." "Waver."

Folks, this was only a ninety minute debate - and Bush only got half of
it.

The worst part was seeing the look of the Bush spinners' faces
afterwards. They were, at first, trying desperately to try and pretend
their guy won, but couldn't muster it. Then they tried to call it a
draw. No luck. So in the end they simply admitted the obvious, that
their guy lost - which, coming from the Bushies, means he really got
clobbered. And, desperately, they tried to sell the spin that Kerry won
but it won't affect the voters or polls.

Like we've said, this is not an election, it is a chump check. One
candidate is not even considerable. And America saw that clearly last
night.

And they saw that the other candidate, Kerry, is no Al Gore. They had
been told he was not warm, aloof, unable to connect, a flip-flopaholic.
As our John Ashton said, all Kerry had to do was pass the, "I'm not a
pushover" test. And there is no question he did so with flying colors.

He nailed points, like about how Bush let Osama get away at Tora Bora,
that the President had been given a free ride on until that point. And he
made important, clear distinctions about Iraq policy. The press said it
wasn't clear what the difference was between Kerry's and Bush's positions
on Iraq. Kerry made it clear again and again: It's the how, stupid.

He said clearly and concisely, "I've had one position, one consistent
position, that Saddam Hussein was a threat. There was a right way to disarm
him and a wrong way. And the president chose the wrong way."

And he was very specific in pointing out what the wrong way meant, and
what the right way would be: to win peace, the people over there must
trust we are not there to occupy their country and take their oil.

"I think a critical component of success in Iraq is being able to convince
the Iraqis and the Arab world that the United States doesn't have
long-term designs on it. As I understand it, we're building some 14
military bases there now, and some people say they've got a rather
permanent concept to them. When you guard the oil ministry, but you don't
guard the nuclear facilities, the message to a lot of people is maybe,
"Wow, maybe they're interested in our oil."

When, "The only building that was guarded when the troops went into
Baghdad was the oil ministry," we created an insurgency, said Kerry. When
Bush, "didn't guard the nuclear facilities... didn't guard the foreign
office, where you might have found information about weapons of mass
destruction... didn't guard the borders," Bush created the mess that
exists there now; he wouldn't have made such a mess and will correct
mistakes like these now.

And, again clearly pointing out how he would fix the situation in Iraq,
correcting the mistakes Bush has made, he said, "I will make a flat
statement: The United States of America has no long-term designs on staying
in Iraq."

It would be nice to show some area or moment where Bush shined and Kerry
could use some improvement, but there was none. Tonight was ugly, a
complete disaster for the Bushies - and so far, unlike with Gore, the
non-M/I media hasn't even been able to cover for Bush on this one.

No, tonight America saw that the emperor clearly has no clothes, and they
all realized, as they gazed upon him standing naked before them for ninety
painful, tortured minutes, that the naked truth is, the emperor really
doesn't have much there.(

__________________
www.contraweb.tk
.: Digital Activism for the New Millenium :.

...Its hard work but we are making progress!!

I think we saw a bonafide President in Kerry last nite and while I believed Kerry would live up to expectation, I was disappointed in Jr. I know he is NOT the greatest orator or even a good debater but his antics, exasperation and his impatience was embarrasing not only to him but to all of us as Americans.

Both men stretched the "truth" on a number of points but it seemed like only one was prepared. Howard Fineman of MSNBC put it best: George Bush came to a 90 minute Debate with 30 minutes of material.

I think Kerry did a better job than Bush. That doesn't mean I think Kerry did even a half-decent job in the debates. I disagree strongly with both of them, but I do hope Kerry gets elected. I live in Texas, so I'm voting third party, since my state is bound to go Republican (though it is moderately heartening that I've seen about 15 times more signs promoting Kerry around than I saw for Gore in 2000).

__________________
"Violence isn't always evil. What's evil is the infatuation with violence."
Jim Morrison