When they first brought up the warning lights thing, with the yellow and red lights, I almost laughed aloud. I imagined a gameshow type environment. After the lights went red, the room went black. “I’m sorry Mr. [Bush or Kerry], you have been eliminated.”
Also thinking about Kerry’s position on Iraq, and I think he’s still sending “mixed messages.” He says Saddam was a threat. But then, he also says the war’s a diversion and the wrong war at the wrong time. So is Saddam really a threat, or not? Kerry’s answer is yes. He’s such a threat that we should’ve slapped another resolution on him.
[1:30PM] EDIT: John Kerry plugged his website, JohnKerry.com, during the debate. Milestone. Remember way back when, when companies didn’t even have websites? Now, every company has one. The influence of the web is growing. Is this the first time a website has been mentioned during a presidential debate? I have no idea if any were mentioned, or not, during the 2000 debate.
Yes, Kerry did say Saddam was a threat… but one that could still be contained, suggesting that the dictator was not an imminent threat that required attacking at once.
Kerry’s main point that attacking Iraq was a diversion from the extant threat of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan is still a solid line of criticism that Bush and Co. haven’t quite responded to adequately.
By the way, have you read the astonishing e-mail of Wall Street Journal writer Farnaz Fassihi, going the internet rounds? Her description of actual events on the ground in Iraq put the absolute lie to the Bush line that things are going reasonably well there. They are not. Things are deteriorating downwards in a rapid spiral.
Link to Fassihi’s e-mail:
http://poynter.org/forum/default.asp?id=misc&DGPCrSrt=&DGPCrPg=1
…and clearly, this cannot be dismissed as raving propaganda from the ‘liberal media.’