Into the home stretch
by Justin Breuer
The Metropolitan
The American political process has entered the final stretch. The dull,
superfluous headlines and debate the media-consuming public has had to
endure over the summer have ended.
Gone is talk of ambiguous accounts of swift boat leadership and whether
or not medals won in war were deserved or not. Gone is talk of Texas Air
National Guard service records and whether or not serving with honor means
showing up for dental exams.
Now is the time for issues to come to the front—the real issues.
What is to be done with our healthcare? How can we create more jobs, and
keep the ones we have? What will we do to strengthen our ailing institutions
of education, especially on the college and university level? What can
we do to make ourselves more safe from those who wish us harm, whether
domestic or abroad? What kind of world will we build for our children?
What kind of world will we build for ourselves? What will our future be?
Welcome to the debates.
This is where the presidency is won or lost. Where a drop of sweat on
your brow or a nervous licking of lips can mean more than the most articulately
laid out policy. The debates are the arena where a cleverly delivered
comment can become a mortal wound to a candidacy.
The debates between the contender George W. Bush and the challenger John
Kerry are quite possibly, and hopefully, the most significant presidential
debates in our lifetime. Let us not overlook the backdrop of these debates:
First there was the missile defense shield, a policy that stirred the
world because we dropped out of some missile and nuclear treaties. It
was argued that it would start a new arms race.
Second was a confrontation with China. They captured one of our spy planes
and held the crew for a while. It was Bush’s first major diplomatic
challenge and he handled it with his characteristically rigid style.
The greatest and worst thing to happen, we all know: 9/11. Some of us
may have known someone who died that day; some of us just saw it on TV.
We all remember the awesome shock, the terrible feeling that went deep.
There were, and still are, no words.
Then everything went crazy. We went to war and have been there ever since.
Affirmative action was assailed. Roe v. Wade was under siege. Gay marriage
became legal, then illegal, and now finds itself swaying between partnerships
with the legal benefits of marriage and a Constitutional amendment proclaiming
there will be no gay marriage allowed within the borders of the United
States, ever. The economy tanked from bursting bubbles no one told us
about, terrorism the likes we’ve never seen, and CEOs with more
greed than money.
Higher education was the first thing the politicians cut when they realized
that they needed to balance the budget. Politics got ugly, partisanship
and loyalty to the party line became rampant.
The invasion of Iraq divided our country and the world. America went
from receiving sympathy from the world to receiving skepticism.
The first presidential debate was on Foreign policy. Bush and Kerry faced
off over Iraq and the war on terror. Neither candidate defined what the
“war on terror” actually meant. Neither candidate went specific,
which is understandable to a degree because we don’t want to tell
our enemies what we’re planning.
But there were differences: Kerry brought new ideas to the table with
the suggestion that we should hold summits to gather world leaders and
get them involved in Iraq. Bush stood with what he had been doing, with
the rigid non-flourish of ‘if he knew what he did now he’d
do it all again.’
The debate had an obvious winner. Kerry dominated the debate from the
very beginning. Not to say that Kerry handled himself perfectly, although
it was a good performance. As much as Kerry won the debate, George W lost
it. Bush appeared nervous, constantly moving, shifting as he stood. He
had trouble finishing his thoughts, and appeared distant and confused.
One famous part of his debate was when he assured his challenger Kerry
and the American public that he knew who attacked us, a comment that called
in to question whether he really did understand who attacked us on September
11.
Kerry, on the other hand, stood straight and refrained from pulling faces
during cutaway shots –something Bush failed to do. Bush used words
to encourage and bolster his supporters, words like “conviction.”
Unfortunately, because of his poor performance of body language, some
viewers are sure to question whether or not conviction is something that
describes Bush, especially since he had to read certain lines during his
speech that should have come from the heart, like how he felt about terrorists.
The polls, as pointless and seemingly worthless as they are, reflect
the fact that Kerry won the debate. The substantial lead Bush had going
into the debate evaporated within the next two days. The race for the
White House has become a dead heat. Not a good situation if you are the
incumbent.
On Tuesday night, Vice President Dick Cheney and challenger Sen. John
Edwards sparred in a much harder to call debate. It is the only vice presidential
debate versus the three presidential debates. Cheney and Edwards, former
CEO and Trial Lawyer respectively, put up either a good fight or a lackluster
one, depending on how one chooses to view it.
There were some lively moments when both candidates openly insulted each
other’s records, Edwards in the senate and Cheney as a CEO and working
for the Government. Cheney claimed that Kerry and Edwards voted for the
war, then against it. Cheney claimed that they voted against funding our
troops during a time of war. Edwards attempted to explain the votes and
partially succeeded; they weren’t against the war but how the war
was conducted, they weren’t against the troops but for accountability
of the Administration.
As a rebuttal, Edwards pointed out that Cheney voted against freeing
Nelson Mandela, against Meals-on-Wheels for senior citizens, and against
making Martin Luther King Day a national holiday. On a personal side note:
damn.
But Cheney conducted himself well and spewed out facts and names that
showed he really had a grasp of what he was doing. The word facts may
raise a couple of eyebrows from readers, but remember, every politician
lies, at least Cheney does it in a way that makes you want to believe
that he knows what he’s doing.
A marked difference between the two styles of debating, Edwards v. Cheney,
was that Edwards used all of his time to either answer the question he
was asked or to jump back to another topic that he wasn’t done talking
about. Cheney, on the other hand, felt fine to say that he had nothing
to say and ceded his time to the moderator.
There was no clear victor. If a tie could be called than the debate was
a tie.
So, what does a tie mean? It means that the Kerry campaign gets to keep
it’s momentum going into the second presidential debate.
The second debate will be a town hall format and Bush will be under pressure
to perform. It will be a major breaking point in the battle for the White
House, it may decide who will be the next President of the United States,
and holder of our future.
The second debate will be on domestic issues, so if you care about things
like healthcare and education and a woman’s right to choose and
affirmative action and… well, you get the point. Tune in.
The second and third presidential debates will be on October 8 and 13,
9:00 pm EDT.
|
