Highway to Hell

Highway to Hell

Tonight’s second presidential debate showed once again why Bush cannot be re-elected. He is a smarmy, smirking liar, and I pray that the fact checkers show him for exactly what he is. I’m looking forward to the coverage of this debate over the next few days.

Watching Bush wink and smirk his way through his convoluted retorts in what he clearly views as a witty manner (how else do you explain the winking and smirking?) absolutely sickens me. His answers to straight forward questions asked on the subjects of tort reform, stem cell research, tax cuts, the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act and replacing supreme court justice vacancies rang false. This was not the slam-dunk that the first debate was, but it showed that Kerry is better equipped to stay cool under pressure and that he can convey a clear message. Bush did not come across as childish as he did in the first debate, but he still looked uncomfortable and twitchy.

I think that Kerry came across as more informed and better able to keep his answers understandable and on track than Bush. I was particularly impressed with his answer to the question on abortion. I think that he answered that question in the only way an American can answer it. I LOVE that Kerry said that he would not legislate his own morality at the cost of constitutional rights. Bush continued throughout this debate to stand beside his decision to go to Iraq, stay in Iraq and he bases it all on his continued belief that Saddam was amassing weapons of mass destruction, in spite of reports from the U.S. arms inspector stating that the means to create weapons of mass destruction were not in place when the U.S. invaded.

“Flip-flopping” is not a bad thing, if it means you can change your position when circumstances change - as circumstances have a way of doing. I think the biggest liability for Bush right now is his stubbornness in “staying the course.” The course we are on is not taking the U.S. where it needs to go to heal and flourish as a nation. It is not allowing us to join the rest of the world to try to repair some of the damage that we have caused through our ethnocentrism and our corporate and political greed. Bill Maher likened Bush’s stance in Iraq to the stereotypical male who gets lost, but won’t admit it and won’t pull off the highway and ask for directions. If he’s not going to flip-flop, I wish Bush would at least stop and ask for directions.