Wednesday, 6 October 2004
Cheney vs Edwards
The vice presidential debate displayed clearly the contrast between thetwo campaigns. Cheney continued the Bush campaign's mantra of strength on the war on terror while maintaining that his opponents have wavered. Edwards on the other hand, continued his Monday morning quarterback assaults on the Bush presidency.
What was interesting about the debates was Cheney's evisceration of Edwards onthree key points
- The first and most damning occurred when Cheney said "A little tough talk in the midst of a campaign or as part of a presidential debate cannot obscure a record of 30 years of being on the wrong side of defense issues." This was a devastating comment that put front and center the abysmal voting record of John Kerry. And it is this liberal voting record that John Kerry himself has been trying to avoid. He knows it is one of the most liberal voting records in the U.S. Senate and liberalism will not play with the American electorate. If the focus stays on Kerry's voting record, the Kerry campaign will not be able to close the gap between him and Bush in the final four weeks.
- The second was Cheney's explanation of why Kerry voted for the war and against the $80 million dollar supplemental funding
This quote illustrates perfectly the flip flop nature of Kerry and why people can't trust him to be commander in chief.And with respect to this particular operation, we've seen a situation in which, first, they voted to commit the troops, to send them to war, John Edwards and John Kerry, then they came back and when the question was whether or not you provide them with the resources they needed -- body armor, spare parts, ammunition -- they voted against it.
I couldn't figure out why that happened initially. And then I looked and figured out that what was happening was Howard Dean was making major progress in the Democratic primaries, running away with the primaries based on an anti-war record. So they, in effect, decided they would cast an anti-war vote and they voted against the troops.
Now if they couldn't stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to stand up to al-Qaeda?
- The final blow occurred when Cheney's talked about Kerry's degradation of our allies in the war on terror and how his remarks impairs our ability to fight the war on terror.
This provides a severe credibility gap on one of Kerry's key issues. Kerry claims that he alone would be able to build better coalitions with nations around the world. How can he accomplish that when he insults our closest friends.You made the comment that the Gulf War coalition in '91 was far stronger than this. No. We had 34 countries then; we've got 30 today. We've got troops beside us.
It's hard, after John Kerry referred to our allies as a coalition of the coerced and the bribed, to go out and persuade people to send troops and to participate in this process.
You end up with a situation in which -- talk about demeaning. In effect, you demean the sacrifice of our allies when you say it's the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, and oh, by the way, send troops. Makes no sense at all. It's totally inconsistent. There isn't a plan there.
Our most important ally in the war on terror, in Iraq specifically, is Prime Minister Allawi. He came recently and addressed a joint session of Congress that I presided over with the speaker of the House.
And John Kerry rushed out immediately after his speech was over with, where he came and he thanked America for our contributions and our sacrifice and pledged to hold those elections in January, went out and demeaned him, criticized him, challenged his credibility.
That is not the way to win friends and allies. You're never going to add to the coalition with that kind of attitude.
Edwards on the other hand was long on FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) and short on substance. All we got from Edwards was a constant drum beat of gloomand doom tied with the ancient tradition of liberal class warfare.
Let's get a taste of Edward's quotes and see if you don't agree
You know, we've taken 90 percent of the coalition causalities. American taxpayers have borne 90 percent of the costs of the effort in Iraq.
1.6 million private sector jobs have been lost
2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost
4 million more Americans have fallen into poverty.
The administration says over and over that the outsourcing of millions of American jobs is good.
we have gone from a $5 trillion projected surplus when George Bush took office to a $3 trillion projected deficit.
They promised they were going to put $2 trillion of the surplus aside from Social Security. Not done.
Roll back tax cuts for people who make over $200,000 a year; we will do that.
Here's the truth: I have grown up in the bright light of America. But that light is flickering today.
The Kerry-Edwards ticket has shown to be nothing more than nattering naybobs of negativity. Everything they spew forth is either negative about America or promoting liberal class warfare, racial divisions, or scaringsenior citizens.
The truth about the economy is it is recovering from a devastating recessionbrought on by the dot.com bust which was exacerbated by the attacks of 9/11.Job growth is up this year and the economy is growing again. The only drag on the economy is the high oil prices that will hopefully stabilize with afree Iraq. But the Kerry camp continues to deflate confidence in the economy.
Then they bring out the tired liberal play book and try some class warfare.This is done by stating that they only want to raise taxes on those makingover $200,000. It escapes the liberals that raising taxes will be a tax on small businesses filed as s-corps. And it is these small businesses that create over 70% of the jobs.
Of course the calls from the play book would not be complete without an attempt to scare senior citizens. They say that the Republicans are going to take away Social Security and the evil Republicans prefer drug company profits to providing drugs at an affordable cost. This is flat poppy-cock.
You think the play book of the left would get some new plays after 40 years, but alas they are void of new solutions. There think tank is on empty. I keep hearing that the domestic issues are a strong point for the Kerry camp, butI see it as a weaker position than their war on terror. No wonder they have decided to fight this election over the war on terror.
