Posted on 09/28/2004 3:44:56 PM PDT by kingattax
Sen. John Kerry and President Bush tested their best debate lines yesterday, mixing dashes of humor with cutting criticism in a preview of their Thursday night encounter in Miami.
Kerry, preparing in the quiet hills of south-central Wisconsin for the debate, accused the President of "not coming clean" about the war in Iraq and the state of the U.S. economy.
He acknowledged that some voters questioned whether it was prudent, in the middle of a war, to "change horses in midstream," but he said, "When your horse is heading down toward the waterfall, or when your horse is drowning, it's a good time to change horses in midstream."
The 6-foot-4 Democrat added: "May I also suggest that we need a taller horse. You can get through deeper waters that way."
Bush ridiculed Kerry in a speech to a fairgrounds crowd in Clark County in southwestern Ohio and reiterated his campaign's case that the Massachusetts senator was an inveterate "flip-flopper."
"It's been a little tough to prepare because he keeps changing positions," Bush said.
Bush noted that Kerry voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq but later voted against an $87 billion funding package to equip the troops and support reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Kerry had complained of spending too little on Iraq reconstruction and spending too much.
"He ought to spend 90 minutes debating himself," Bush told the crowd.
The Bush camp dispatched former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to Wisconsin yesterday to intrude on Kerry's debate-training retreat. Giuliani spoke to employees at the Lands' End distribution center in nearby Dodgeville. He then held a news conference at an inn about a mile from Kerry's resort. His topic? Kerry as a flip-flopper.
Both campaigns began airing new TV commercials that reiterated the candidates' accusations on Iraq.
The Bush ad features quick, carefully edited quotations by Kerry that seemed to show him agreeing with Bush's decision to oust Saddam Hussein, but later saying Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time.
"How can John Kerry protect us," the ad asks, "when he doesn't even know where he stands?"
Kerry's commercial ridiculed the speech Bush gave last year on an aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" banner behind him.
"Today: over 1,000 U.S. soldiers dead, kidnappings, even beheadings of Americans," the ad says. "Still, Bush has no plan what to do in Iraq. How can you solve a problem when you can't see it?"
After weeks of eliminating practically all references to his record as a Vietnam combat veteran, Kerry mentioned it yesterday in an effort to distinguish himself from the President. Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard.
"I fought for my country and I volunteered to fight for my country," Kerry said. "And when I came back, I did what I thought was patriotic and I volunteered to stand up and call it the way I saw it."
Supporters at the town-hall gathering virtually pleaded with him to be succinct. One man asked the Kerry camp to distribute issue cards with subject headings that make clear "what you stand for."
Asked the most important thing that Kerry should do during Thursday's debate, Kim Cates, a legislative aide to Sen. Herb Kohl (D., Wis.) who operates a cattle farm with her husband, said: "I'd like him to, when a question is asked, listen to the question and answer the question in a clear, concise manner."
To quote your tag...***Help control the Leftist population - have them spayed or neutered***
That would imply they had the "equipment" to be disarmed. =P
Horse-faced Kerry is making horse references? Who's advising this guy?
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