Millions of people watched the first Presidential debate last night. I was one of them. At the end of the ninety minutes, I thought John Kerry had looked better, sounded better, and maintained his composure better.
I also think that he lost the debate.
Of course, Old Media is practically swooning over Kerry's "win." As they keep telling us ad nauseum, he came across confident, forceful, well-prepared. He was positively presidential. But were any of these liberal groupies listening to what he was saying?
Kerry does not have the stomach, the principles, or the backbone, to lead a war. No matter how necessary to our defense or security, I can not visualize this man ever sending troops into battle, under any circumstances. And that makes me frightened for our future under a Kerry presidency.
Did anyone hear Kerry mention his 20-year Senate record? Of course not. Throughout his tenure, he has consistently voted against military spending or defense appropriations, right up to and including the $87 billion supplemental bill to support the troops in Iraq that he approved before he rejected. That bill provided for the body armor he now laments the troops not having.
His hypocrisy makes my head hurt.
Of all the preposterous and dangerous words Kerry uttered last night, none were so telling, so bone-chilling as his assertion that a "global test" of support for any action that the United States might take to defend itself is necessary.
Excuse me? I don't think so. Go try to sell "global test" in American towns in the flyover states. And good luck to you, Prince Orator.
President Bush held his own. He looked tired, as a man who had spent the day visiting Florida's hurricane victims, in addition to running the war and the country, would. Unlike dandy Kerry, there was no time in President Bush's day for a salon manicure. He didn't speak as well as Kerry did, but then, John Kerry talks for a living. President Bush acts. And he acts in our country's best interests, not in response to the political winds of the moment.
John Kerry speaks in stentorian, condescending tones. His “plan” to end the Iraq war is to hold a meeting. He excels at describing what he would do, but we don't hear much of what he has actually done. To borrow a pithy phrase from MacBeth, he is "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
George W. Bush speaks from the heart, haltingly at times, but always with honesty and principles. America knows what he believes, where he stands, and how he will stop at nothing to protect us. President Bush understands that we can not be safe at home until the radical Islamist terrorists abroad are destroyed. He’s not afraid to go after them in their homelands, instead of allowing them to attack us again in ours.
And that’s not debatable.
