It is almost painful to read, isn't it?

I think the debates tomorrow will be anticlimactic and neither man will give much in the way of a show. All Kerry has to do is get through the debate without waggin' his finger at W. And all W has to do is manage to get through the debate without falling asleep listening to Kerry.

I would be very surprised if he allows them to bait him into a frustration response. I would also be surprised if Kerry gets through the debate without contradicting something he has previously said.

All in all, I think it will be a bit of a let down for anyone who is expecting fireworks.

We should not have gone to war knowing the information that we know today.

I'm not a "professional" journalist, of course, but maybe a good follow-up question might have been, "That's not at all helpful, Senator, but since we're pretending to be forthright and all, how about answering the real question: Do you think we should have gone to war based on what we knew then?"

Not that his answer would have made sense.

How in the name of the Almighty are we supposed to know what the outcome is before we decide to do anything?

Is this like a gordian knot? Even I cannot keep up with this. Does John Kerry actually believe that you can make decisions looking in the rear view mirror?

Jennifer--

I agree. They'll both be on their best behavior, and they'll both be a little nervous. It'll be a wash, which will hurt Kerry a bit more than W. If W. ties all three debates, he wins-- but if Kerry can't eke out a victory tomorrow, the media will start spinning "Kerry really needed to differentiate himself tonight, and he failed to do that with his subdued performance."

The good news is, such a critque makes it even likelier that the NEXT debates will have fireworks, as Kerry tries to get more "lively."

I just don't see how the debates will help Kerry, unless Dubya gets a lot of things spectacularly wrong, and Kerry comes across as not only smart but competent-- and empathic. I'm not taking that bet.

BTW, I haven't paid attention to the formats (I know one is a town hall), but there's a live audience for each of them, I'm sure. And that will most likely hurt Kerry-- he's got more of a desire to play to the cheap seats, and all it takes is a bit of Arsenio-style "whoop, whoop" to derail a gentlemanly debate, and turn into a MoveOn rally.

Personally, I can't wait until Tuesday, when we get to watch the Vice President debate the Boy Wonder. I've got a feeling that watching it will be like watching Vader dismantle Luke at the end of ESB, lazy one-handed lightsaber swings and all that jazz.

Or better yet, Cheney may just force-strangle the smile off of Pinocchio's waxy face-- "I find your lack of faith in the American fighting man disturbing."

Cheers,
Dave
Garfield Ridge

My head. Hurts.

I love this!
It is like going back to MegaMillions with my ticket ang saying:

"Knowing what I know now, it was not worth buying the ticket because it did not win,it was a lemon, give me back my money. However, had it won the prize, it would be worthwhile buying it."

So, next time we buy a ticket, we should keep this in mind and make the decision accordingly.
Sweet, isn't it?

You guys kill me. I don't normally read the comments
here, but you're almost as funny as Ace.

Oh... Did you see that Michelle Malkin linked him
and said "one of my must-reads every day"?

Woohoo!

I have to give Ms. Saywer credit, though. I would have laughed in his face if tried to answer with such sophomoric and ethically flawed arguments. I read from so many sources that John Kerry is a great debater. How is it possible with such amazingly flawed logic and reasoning skills? He must have faced particularly poor debate opponents...I take it he never had to deal with the likes of William F. Buckley.

Also, by Kerry's "logic", nothing can be perceived as being worth *anything* until the event is over and done with. Can you imagine FDR being asked during WWII if the European War Theatre was "worth it" and he answered, "Well, when it is all over, we shall see if attempting to stop the evil of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and keeping Europe free from totalitarian rule was worth it. I cannot say until such time, however."

SonofNixon should have included the rest of the transcript because a bit further down the entire interview degenerates into Abott & Costello's "Who's on first" skit. That Diane Sawyer plays a great Costello.

Headline: John Kerry exposes his supersecret weapon which will enable him to be "the best president ever!"

He's psychic!

KERRY: We should not have gone to war knowing the information that we know today.

SAWYER: So it was not worth it?

KERRY: We should not -- depends on the outcome ultimately and that depends on the leadership, and we need better leadership to get the job done successfully.

Where is the flip-flopping? Sorry, he didn't "Stick to his guns"? The difference between Kerry and Bush is that Kerry is willing to accept and point out that humans, based off of the information that is provided to them, are fallible.

He's not arguing whether we should have gone to war. He's stating that given the information we have now, if he were President, he would not have gone to war. He is using rhetoric to side step the question. The bottom line is he won't state whether or not the war in Iraq was worth it. Why? What is done is done. According to our intelligence in Iraq at that start of the war the United States was conviced that there were weapons of mass destruction there. Bush, going on his gut reaction attacked. Bad move, he didn't even let the inspections pan out before moving in. The man has no idea what he's doing.

According to Bush, Kerry is a flip-flopper. If that is so is Bush not? Let's take a look at Bush:

Bush says he wouldn't go to the UN in regards to Iraq, he claims he doesn't need to.
---Bush then goes to the UN panel and asks for help with Iraq (Bush-flop #1)

Bush originally says he won't support a new Homeland Security Department.
---Bush later (after some firm advice I imagine) says he supports the idea of a new Homeland Security Department. (Bush-flop #2)

Bush says he won't support the 9/11 Commision,
---then he does (Bush-flop #3)

There are so many more changes of position that Bush has taken...I won't waste your time or my own.

Also, comparing Bush to FDR and the European Theatre to Iraq is ubsurd, there are little if any similarities.