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Despite slamming President Bush for leading what Kerry calls the coalition of the "bribed and coerced," John Kerry says that HE would just lead a coalition of the bribed. (More) www.whatsinthenews.com

Here are the specific frames from the debate video shoqing most clearly what Kerry had in his hand as he took it out of his pocket and placed it on the podium. I have taken two of the frames, lightened them, zoomed in, and sharpened the pics. No other enhancements have been made: Cropped, lightened original of Kerry pulling item from pocket. Enlarged and sharpened. Cropped, lightened original, of Kerry putting article down. Enlarged and sharpened.

one of the Bush-Gore debates from 2000 will be shown on C-Span at 11:35 PM EDT. I believe this is the town meeting style and the one where GW gave Al Gore "The Nod" when Gore came up close behind GW when he was speaking.

ON the day of the most im portant debate in their political lives, President Bush was in shirt sleeves consoling Florida hurricane victims, patting some on the back, hugging others and shaking hands with the tired relief workers. John Kerry had a manicure. If ever there was a metaphor for the difference between these two candidates and their respective relationships with the American people, it was this.

After months of circling each other, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry touched down in South Florida on Wednesday on the eve of their highly anticipated encounter -- a 90-minute debate that could be seen by as many as 50 million people and set the tone for the campaign's final stretch. With national polls showing Bush with a slight lead, the stakes tonight are immense: The first debate is perhaps Kerry's best opportunity to convince voters that he could be president, that Bush blundered his way into Iraq and that the Democrat can better protect the United States against the...

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...

One of the reasons John Kerry is going to lose the foreign-policy debate Thursday night in Coral Gables, Florida, is that he is a pessimist and a defeatist. His recent broad-side attacks on President Bush’s war against terrorism are right out of the Vietnam-era: Blame America. Blame the commander-in-chief. Blame the military. Assume we will lose. Prime Minister Allawi of Iraq seemed to grasp the danger in this when he spoke in the Rose Garden last week: “When political leaders sound the siren of defeatism in the face of terrorism, it only encourages more violence.” Compare that line to the...

The first of the presidential debates will be held this Thursday, September 30. The Pew Research Center reports that 4 in 10 Americans say they are sure to watch that first debate, which would give it a far greater audience than four years ago when the ever-underestimated George W. Bush was believed to have bested the well-known debater V.P. Al Gore. Debates have a big tradition in presidential politics. They fell into disuse for many years. Their modern-day rival occurred 44 years ago when Democratic nominee Senator John F. Kennedy upstaged V.P. Richard M. Nixon. I say "upstaged" because I...

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Saturday, Sept. 25, 2004 2:07 p.m. EDTKerry Taps Controversial Elian Attorney The Elian Gonzalez controversy was the single most critical factor giving George Bush the presidency in 2000. It may prove to be a critical factor this year as well – thanks to John Kerry who just tapped a key figure in the Elian controversy for his campaign. Kerry must have forgotten that after the Elian brouhaha record numbers of Cuban Americans in Florida voted against Al Gore – ceding the closely contested Florida race – and the presidency to George Bush. The Miami Herald reported Saturday...

The Commission on Presidential Debates asked President Bush (search) and Democratic Sen. John Kerry (search) to meet for their first debate next week. The commission also invited Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards to a single debate on Oct. 5. Invitations were based on nonpartisan selection criteria adopted last year: that participants be constitutionally eligible for election; that their names appear on enough state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning enough electoral votes for election; and that they receive at least 15 percent in an average of five national polls to show support for election.

Just hours after CBSNEWS admitted it cannot prove the authenticity of documents used in a 60 MINUTES story about President Bush's National Guard service, top Bush advisers are recommending a CBS reporter be removed as moderator of a planned presidential debate, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Paul G. Kirk, Jr. and Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., co-chairmen of The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), today announced sites and dates for the 2004 general election debates. They are: First presidential debate: University of Miami Coral Gables, FL Thursday, September 30 Vice presidential debate: Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH Tuesday, October 5 Second presidential debate: Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO Friday, October 8 Third presidential debate: Arizona State University Tempe, AZ Wednesday, October 13 The CPD also announced two back-up sites, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY and the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC....

Open Debates, National Press Building, 529 14th St. NW, Suite 1201, Washington, DC 20045 February 19, 2004 Contact: Chris Shaw (202) 628-9195 Today, Open Debates filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). The complaint contains previously unreleased, secret documents that reveal how the major party candidates collude with the CPD to dictate the terms of the presidential debates and exclude third-party and independent challengers. “FEC regulations require presidential debate sponsors that accept corporate contributions to be `nonpartisan' and to employ `pre-established objective' candidate selection criteria. The CPD, which accepts millions of...

I was thinking last night about how to describe a Democratic presidential candidates' debate using a song title. My choice was "Send In The Clowns". Anybody else care to contribute?