bushie, frenchie and john

Wednesday night’s debate-watching event, I believe, went well. I just scanned a few local websites and no one is making fun of me, which is a good sign. There wasn’t even mention of the suspicious bulge that appeared when I stood up to address the group… If you want to see photos, you should probably check out Cory’s site. The MM.com camera was with Linette most of the evening and, unfortunately, she chose to document the slow disintegration of a rack of ribs, rather than the event itself. (There are a few photos below, however.) As for the event, I’d say that about 40 people turned out for it. Not too bad for 36 hours notice.

MM.com Exclusive:
I don’t think she probably wants me to post this, but, at one point during the evening, Linette asked me if I thought we could reserve the room every week for America’s Next Top Model.

As the debate’s already two days old, I won’t bore you with too much detail. Clearly, Kerry emerged from this final meeting with the momentum. Bush didn’t crash and burn though. He didn’t go comatose like in the first match-up, and he didn’t put on the Furious George act like he did in the second. It was his best performance, but, sadly, that still wasn’t good enough. He lost decisively.

If Karl Rove has a trick to play, he’s going to have to do it in the next two weeks. The amount of work the Republicans are doing in Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere to suppress the Democratic vote just isn’t going to be enough at the rate people are jumping the Bush ship. It seems that every day another state that had been fairly solid for Bush is leaning toward Kerry. The administration needs something big. They need something more than just having those 62 Sinclair Broadcasting-owned television stations playing anti-Kerry propaganda. They need a video of Kerry either 1) having sex with his daughters, 2) performing an abortion and/or eating a fetus, or 3) entering into a gay marriage with a member of the Viet Cong. I don’t even know that announcing the capture of bin Laden would do it at this point. It has to be something big, and it has to hurt Kerry more than it helps Bush. People, it seems, are just coming to the realization that Bush isn’t leading us in the right direction. It’s that simple… So, you have to wonder, if it doesn’t look as though it’s going to be close enough to steal the election, how far will they go to destroy their opponent?

OK, here are a few brief notes concerning the debate:

– Kerry demonstrated a grasp of the issues and, comparatively speaking, a command of the English language… Did I just dream it, or at some point during the debate, did Bush say that, unlike him, his wife “knows how to convey her thoughts in our language?”

– I wonder if there was anyone watching the debate that believed Bush when he said he wouldn’t have a “litmus test” for potential Supreme Court justices. It’s a bald-faced lie and he says it with a wink and a nod, knowing that everyone in the anti-choice community knows it. The phrases “no litmus test” and “culture of life” cannot exist together in the same sentence. If you’re a woman in this country who believes that Bush wouldn’t, if he had the power, roll back Roe v. Wade, you’re in-fucking-sane.

– I’m a bit embarrassed by how much I enjoyed seeing Bush shoot himself in the foot when he said, “The borders in Texas are much safer now than when I was Governor.”

– It wasn’t any surprise to hear Bush call Kerry a “Massachusetts liberal,” and then even go so far as to say that he’s more liberal than Ted Kennedy. Kerry did an admirable job, however, with his rebuttal, saying that he’s shown how he will pay for every initiative he’s proposed, something the President has failed to do for the agenda he laid out at the RNC.

– Kerry made me a bit uneasy when he pointed out the fact that Cheney had a gay daughter. I think it was too obviously done for the benefit of the bigots in the audience who would be horrified to learn that the VP had, horror of horrors, raised a ‘homosexual’ under his roof.

– I liked when Kerry said that both he and Bush “married up.” In Kerry’s case, it’s clear what he meant, as his wife is worth hundreds of millions. As I don’t believe that was the case with Laura Bush, it would seem that Kerry was implying Laura was just a better person than George… Bush smiled for a moment, until it sunk in.

– I couldn’t believe that neither the environment nor alternative energy were discussed at all in this debate, which was supposed to be about domestic issues.

– I’d never heard Bush mention “armies of compassion” before. If there isn’t an Orwell Award, there should be, and that should win some kind of prize.

– Kerry’s “Tony Soprano” line went over well, as did his mention of the conversation he had with his mother on her deathbed, when she stressed he needed to bring “integrity” to the office of president.

– My friend Steve, who happens to be unemployed at the moment, had the best analysis of the jobs issue on his site. Instead of stealing it and reprinting it, however, I’ll make you follow this link.

– It didn’t occur to me until I got home Wednesday night that some in the MM.com audience might thing it very fitting that all of us liberals were meeting in a place called Frenchie’s.