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Friday, October 08, 2004

When you hear the secret word, SCREAM REAL LOUD!
Posted by Jill | 9:38 PM


Who knew that Bush's handlers would apply the Pee Wee Herman strategy for tonight's debate? 40 minutes in, and Bush has already screamed at both the audience and at Charlie Gibson.

He's parroting talking points that make no sense...that is, when he's not spouting outright horseshit. People are working overtime (but he's not saying that they aren't getting paid). The elderly are saving money on prescriptions. The hacks that he put in place in Iraq are optimistic.

Bush is losing it right here on national television. Gone is "Mr. Likeable", the guy who gives nicknames to everyone...the affable guy that everyone would want to have a beer with. You wouldn't want a beer with this guy; because he's coming across as the kind of guy who would become a pretty nasty drunk. You have a beer with this president, he'll ask you to step outside and smack you with a broken bottle. It's like watching Dorian Gray's picture. Pretty amazing stuff.

Kerry started off slowly, and didn't answer the first questioner's question, but he's gotten better. Not a slam-dunk, but he doesn't need it. Bush is interrupting him, he's petulant and defensive. NOW we're seeing the spoiled frat-boy brat that everyone's been blind to for the last four years.

Post-mortem later on.

UPDATE: Olbermann is being a good little brownshirt tonight; he must have gotten his marching orders from GE Management. Probably an indication of how the spin is going to go afterward. Every time the word "Churchillian" shows up in the post-debate spin, drink a bottle of Jack Daniels. You'll need it.

POST-DEBATE UPDATE: This is why Atrios is the King of All Blogistan: The debate has been over five minutes, and already he has a link up to a factcheck.org page(that's .ORG, Mr. Cheney) discussing Bush's claim that Kerry would raise taxes for 900,000 "small businesses" and "hurt jobs". Turns out that Kerry talking about Bush having ownership in a timber company wasn't off base at all:

President Bush himself would have qualified as a "small business owner" under the Republican definition, based on his 2001 federal income tax returns. He reported $84 of business income from his part ownership of a timber-growing enterprise. However, 99.99% of Bush's total income came from other sources that year. (Bush also qualified as a "small business owner" in 2000 based on $314 of "business income," but not in 2002 and 2003 when he reported his timber income as "royalties" on a different tax schedule.)
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