It Was a Rout by William Rivers Pitt

[Rhiannon12866]

There was a President on that stage in Florida on Thursday night, and his name was not George.

This was supposed to be the debate that played to the strengths of Bush and his administration. Foreign policy in general and the protection of the United States from terrorism in particular, according to all the polls and every talking head within earshot, are the areas where George supposedly commands the high ground. That illusion came crashing down on the stage in Coral Gables.

How else can one describe the demeanor and behavior of Bush, as seen by 40,000,000 television viewers and heard by millions more radio listeners? Shrill. Defensive. Muddled. Angry, very angry. Repetitive. Uninformed. Outmatched. Unprepared. Hesitant. Twenty four minutes into the debate, Bush lost his temper, and spent the remaining hour and six minutes looking for all the world as though he were sucking on a particularly bitter lemon.

This is what happens when you surround yourself with yes-men. John Kerry put the bricks to Bush and the last four years of his administration clearly, concisely, eloquently and with devastating effect. Bush reacted like a man who has never, ever had anyone tell him anything other than "Good job, sir."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/100204Z.shtml

[krkaufman]

1. Magnificent piece, Will

After many minutes of being pummeled about the head and shoulders with the realities of the mess he had created, Bush lost his temper for the ninth or tenth time and insisted, "We're going to win this war in Iraq!" Yet it was many months and many dead American soldiers ago, on May 1st 2003 in fact, that Bush stood below a banner reading MISSION ACCOMPLISHED and proclaimed, "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

Just eviscerating. The Mother of all Flip-Flops?

[aquart]

2. Yes, indeedy, Will.

And you didn't even have to mention the leash.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. Yes, he's really great, isn't he?!

By this I mean Will Pitt, who always comes through with the truth, and not George Bush*, who is incapable of it!:grr:

[non sociopath skin]

9. Ah, BUT, this is the SECOND Iraqi War (sigh) ..

.. as Shrub's friend Tony Bliar (sic) has been attempting to tell everyone. We WON the first one. But then the nasty a-rabs started ANOTHER war and we're still busy winning that one ...

Okay, okay, I thought it was crap too... :hurts:

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Or The Second Crusade, as Private Eye magazine put it this week

and, of course, while the First Crusade allowed the Christians to gain control of the Holy Land, the second one was a complete failure.

[Insomnicole]

4. Great piece, Will.

I loved this (pertaining to a Freep conspiracy theory):

The shattering, humiliating, obvious defeat handed to George W. Bush before a massive television audience must have come because moderator Jim Lehrer somehow conspired with debate host Fox News to telegraph the questions to Kerry beforehand.

Riiiight ... it's disgusting how Faux News has been fawning over Kerry through this whole campaign. Sheesh.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Outstanding opus Will! (Please excuse the alliteration.)

[mcar]

6. Sweet

You described it perfectly.

[Chomskyite]

7. Holy GOD

That's about all I can say after reading this.

The debate was even worse for Bush than I thought it was.

[Tamyrlin79]

11. Indeed... Perception is everything in politics.

Bush's perception has been "strong on terrorism, strong on foreign policy" yada yada yada. This is the issue that props Bush up in the polls. by that measure, Bush should have wiped the floor with Kerry. Perhaps Bushco really thought that they would knock him out of the race last night. And that would make the other two debates, which deal with issues that Kerry has more support on, less-watched and less persuasive. This was supposed to be Bush's debate, the one he was supposed to win easily. This was the expectation for Bush going in. Then for Bush to go down in a flaming defeat on his ONE issue? Well, it doesn't look good at all. As Will Pitt said, the illusion came crashing down on stage last night and I think the political damage is much more far-reaching.

[truth2power]

8. Whew!! That was great, Will.

Warms the cockles o' my heart!! :loveya:

[Raster]

12. Preach on, Brother Will!

" No amount of spin will be able to undo the reality of what took place in Florida on Thursday night. What happened on that stage was an absolute, immutable truth. Bush looked bad. Worse, he looked uninformed, overmatched and angry. Worst of all, he's going to have to go through it two more times.

If he shows up."

heh heh heh

[Rhiannon12866]

13. I agree that this was a real rout by Kerry

And that Will, as usual, articulated what took place, to perfection.:-)

Here's a video that I ran across, that corrects some of the mis-statements that Bush* made. It's called "Miserable Failure."

http://blog.dccc.org/mt/archives/001241.html

[vinnievin777]

14. Bump

Great Piece.
Vinnie
http://www.vinnievin.com

[Rhiannon12866]

15. Thanks!

Will is always excellent. He feels obligated to get the truth out there and his clear voice cuts through the lies and the spin. I am grateful that he is a part of DU and managing editor of Truthout.:yourock: