Last night's debate could be regarded as the 15th press conference of the
Bush administration. Bush's performance reinforced why he avoids answering
journalists' questions on live TV. Bush is a man with an undegraduate degree
from Yale and an MBA from Harvard. About half the country thinks positively
about Bush, even when they have the opportunity to compare his attempt to
answer similar foreign policy questions, alongside a graduate of the same Ivy
League college that he attended. IMO, Bush had no command of details, only
repeating his stump speach talking points over and over. Shades of Kerry's
experience as a prosecutor were evident. The most misleading statement I saw was that Bush repeated several times that 100,000 Iraqis have been trained
to assume security duties in Iraq, and Kerry did not challenge him.
Quote:
The Pentagon also said on Monday that only about 53,000 of the 100,000 Iraqis on duty now have undergone training.
The documents, obtained by Reuters, show that of the nearly 90,000 currently in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training. And it will be July 2006 before the administration’s new goal of 135,000 fully trained police is met.
The White House stood by the 100,000 figure cited by Bush, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.]
<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6093447/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6093447/</a>
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Bush stated last week that 100,000 Iraqis had been trained. Bush misled
deliberately by intending to give the impression that there is now an
effective Iraqi security force of about 100,000. Even Iraqi Prime Minister
Allawi said last week that the number was actually 50,000.
Bush is bankrupt in the category of willingness to conduct an open and
straightforward dialogue with citizens. He is presented by his handlers, except
for rare occasions like last night, as a carefully scripted performer, protected
from unanticipated or uncontrolled exchanges by the pre-screening of all
members of the public who could potentially occupy the same TV camera
shot that he is in. Last night, Kerry got into that camera shot, and exposed
Bush for the record, in a way that Bush's handlers, secret service detail,
and the local police agencies that Bush's advance team order around, take
great pains, at great expense, to prevent from happening.
Bush, at best, intentionally misleads on important issues like the status of
the Iraqi security force that is the practical measure of the length and scope
of our troops' future deployment and the chances of the sucessfull democratization of Iraq. At worse, he shows compelling evidence of being a
chronic liar about important facts related to national security. Bush's popularity belies the intelligence, or at least the issues orientation of half
of the American electorate. His demonstrated abilities, compared to his
education, are a glowing example of affirmative action via entitlement, and
an indictment of his administration's hypocritical attempts to limit affirmative
action policies in universities in government. How dare my fellow citizens
demean our country and the office of the presidency by sponsoring this
clearly unqualified and, compared, at the very least, to recent past presidents demonstrably intellectually and speach challenged man for a
second term as our president !