Hey, is it my imagination, or did Bush focus on foreign policy in his closing statements? Wasn't this the domestic policy debate?

And did Kerry say he hadn't? Does anyone know?

I don't mean that in a biased fashion. Bush is coming off well because he's energetic and aggressive. Kerry is performing very similarly to how he has in the previous debate. He's less energetic, but he speaks calmly in a measured voice, and he knows his facts. I've generally assumed one reason poll respondents like Kerry in debates, is that he sounds presidential. I think he's doing that tonight, but Bush's game is on, and I know lots of viewers like that. So, what do viewers like...

Bush looks less angry, and more comfortable than in the last debate. Worlds better than he did in the first. The initial take will probably be that it's a draw. My guess is that overnight polls will show that. Both Democrats and Republicans will think their candidate won, and the number of undecideds has been decreasing for at least a couple of weeks. Conservatives are going to love Bush's performance, and it may boost their turnout. They may have been demoralized, and Bush's stro...

From the polling I've seen on the second debate, men respond well to Bush's willingness to attack, but women are turned off by it

Bush just claimed he never said that he wasn't worried about Osama bin Laden. Bush looked into the camera and make fun of Kerry for claiming Bush had. In fact, this is what Bush said : "We want him dead or alive ... but we are not too worried about him. ... He is the one who needs to be worried," Bush said. and Q: Mr. President, in your speeches now, you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? [...] BUSH: ... I don't know where he is. Nor -- you know, I just don't spen...

For those on the Left Mrs. blogic and I watched this spoof last night. It stars -- well, it more than stars, it's only him and the horses -- Will Farrell, doing his very funny impression of George Bush. As an aside, the guy Saturday Night Live has doing their Kerry impression -- Seth Myers -- is perfect. He looks creepily like Kerry, and knows to play it over the top instead of striving for accuracy. For those on the Right I feel guilty posting this. If I valued politics ov...

There's a rumor that's percolated to late night television and major papers that Bush is wearing a wire during the debates . While there's obviously something going on there, I don't think Bush is getting his lines read to him. For one thing, would he have performed so badly in the first debate if some debate expert were feeding Bush lines? The simplest answer is that Bush is wearing a bulletproof vest -- the only problem with that is the White House denies it. Maybe the Secret Service...

Seymour Hersh is the guy who reported the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, and he was one of the first people to discover that prisoners were being tortured in Iraq, at Abu Ghraib. Bush supporters reflexively deny his reports, but his facts have a history of holding up. When the torture story broke, pro-Bush talking heads told us that it was nothing worse than a fraternity prank. Then we saw the photos, and learned that some were so horrific that Congress didn't think we should see ...

For those of you who don't read The Economist , it's about as solidly old-style freemarket capitalist as you can get. It favors low taxes, disciplined budgets, minimal regulation, and free trade. They polled economists -- not exactly a group known for being left wing on economic policy -- and got these results : In an informal poll of 100 academics, conducted by The Economist, Mr Bush's policies win low marks. More than 70% of the 56 professors who responded to our survey rate Mr Bush's f...

Here's the beginning of the LAT's analysis of the second presidential debate . WASHINGTON — In President Bush's aggressive attack on Sen. John F. Kerry's 20-year Senate record during their debate Friday, the facts may have taken the worst beating of all. If you read the analysis, you'll see that while Kerry gets knocked on some stuff, Bush appears to have been much less honest. Here's the Slate summary of the analysis : [W]hile that headline emphasizes both the candidates' inaccuracies...

It's no secret that the Libertarian Cato Institute has been fairly unhappy with Bush. Cato reports have strongly criticized Bush's handling of civil liberties -- especially as reflected in the Patriot Act -- and Bush's expansion of the Federal deficit -- caused by Bush's insistence on cutting taxes and increasing spending. Still, after a 1990s in which the Cato Institute was generally supportive of Republicans, it says something when the Chairman of the Institute -- ex-Reagan official Wi...

It turns out the the Duelfer Report -- Charles Duelfer is the CIA's chief weapons investigator in Iraq -- warns that a 'devastating' attack is actually more likely now that it was before the Iraq War . According to the report , Iraqi insurgest groups are seeking chemical weapon supplies. These insurgent groups expanded during the U.S. occupating of Iraq. Bush continues to insist that his handling of the Iraq War -- and more important, his handling of the Reconstruction of Iraq -- has ...

The Bush administration has been filming and distributing fake news stories to promote Bush's educational policies. These spots are narrated by a "reporter" -- in fact, some one hired for the promotional spot -- who closes with "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting." The ad doesn't identify the government as the creator of the spot, nor does it reveal that the reporter isn't a reporter. In other words, the text of this government promotion hides the fact that it's a government prom...

I have no idea if I'll get any responses to this post. Bush supporters sometimes respond to my concerns about Bush with heated comments about how one sided I am, but less often acknowledge my posts arguing that both major candidates lie, and it's the voters' fault , that left wingers and right wingers are more similar than either side wants to admit and my exhaustive coverage of MemoGate . The title is from an insightful -- no sarcasm intended -- Rumsfeld quote : As we know, Th...