This time last cycle

There was talk of Bush's anger during the debate. Now it's angry McCain. Four more years?

Ron [Fournier], AP: "As he fought to keep his emotions in check in a testy, personal debate with Sen. John Kerry, the president asserted 'That answer almost made me scowl.'... Several answers brought Bush's emotions to the surface, for better or worse, as he sought to curb Kerry's momentum.... Bush was the most aggressive, at one point overrunning moderator Charles Gibson's attempt to pose a question.."

From thirdparty's diary of 10/9/2004

Lest we get cocky, consider this:

Consensus in last night's debate is summed up in this headline on Bloomberg News:

Bush Fails to Stem Kerry Momentum in Second Debate, Polls Show

On October 10, 2004, we get this from Hoffmania:

Y'know - this is fine for judging talkshow hosts, baseball players and sizing up real potential friends. But call me nuts - I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to have a beer with my president. I want them brighter than me, smarter than me, classier than me.

Oh, yeah. I also want my president to be more sober than me. I'm just crazy that way.

Why is this still a valid question in the eyes of the press?

How about this tidbit from the Washington Post on 10/10/2004?

For Marines, a Frustrating Fight
Some in Iraq Question How and Why War Is Being Waged
By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 10, 2004; Page A01

ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq -- Scrawled on the helmet of Lance Cpl. Carlos Perez are the letters FDNY. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York, the Pentagon and western Pennsylvania, Perez quit school, left his job as a firefighter in Long Island, N.Y., and joined the U.S. Marine Corps.

"To be honest, I just wanted to take revenge," said Perez, 20.

Now, two months into a seven-month combat tour in Iraq, Perez said he sees little connection between the events of Sept. 11 and the war he is fighting. Instead, he said, he is increasingly disillusioned by a conflict whose origins remain unclear and frustrated by the timidity of U.S. forces against a mostly faceless enemy.

"Sometimes I see no reason why we're here," Perez said. "First of all, you cannot engage as many times as we want to. Second of all, we're looking for an enemy that's not there. The only way to do it is go house to house until we get out of here."

Perez is hardly alone. In a dozen interviews, Marines from a platoon known as the "81s" expressed in blunt terms their frustrations with the way the war is being conducted and, in some cases, doubts about why it is being waged. The platoon, named for the size in millimeters of its mortar rounds, is part of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment based in Iskandariyah, 30 miles southwest of Baghdad.

More on debating and campaigning, this time a Daily Kos diary from DemFromCT:

Well, there's the new confidence amongst Dems that Kerry is moving up. You can see it in the way Friday's debate and this week's campaign is framed. As noted before, Kerry thinks it's October and is running to the middle and going after weak Bush and undecided swing voters while Bush is still, after all these months, shoring up his base and trying to make the election about Kerry, not about him. Kerry goes positive, in other words, while Bush goes negative.

This article by John Edwards was in the Windy City Times:

It was almost six years ago that we learned the name Matthew Shepherd. We might someday have learned about how this bright, kind and compassionate man contributed to our country. But we learned Matthew Shepard’s name because of the terrible way he was killed on Oct. 12, 1998.

We still remember the fence where Matthew died. His brutal murder opened our country’s eyes to the hatred and violence that many gays and lesbians endure. Yet here we are, almost six years later, with a president who refuses to support legislation barring hate crimes based on sexual orientation.

According to the FBI, crimes committed in 2002 due to bias based on sexual orientation represent 1 in 6 of reported hate-crime incidents. There were more than 1,200 incidents and 1500 victims in 2002 alone.

John Kerry and I want an America that is stronger at home and more respected in the world. We know we cannot achieve that goal until we recognize that all Americans, including gays and lesbians, are part of the fabric of America’s family. And when it comes to family, we must protect each other. We must recognize that crimes against people because of their race, religion, or sexual orientation have no place in America.

That is why John Kerry and I firmly support the bipartisan legislation that will add new protections against hate crimes motivated by the real or perceived sexual orientation of the victim. George Bush has said that this kind of legislation amounts to “special rights.” But there’s nothing special about the right to be free from hateful violence.

In America, people ought to be able to take that right for granted.

Of the Bush campaign Lambert wrote this:

Truth isn't even relevant to these guys. They just make shit up, throw it, and if it sticks, so much the better.

I hope y'all enjoyed this little tour into the not-so-distant past. The resemblance of the McSame campaign to the Bush campaign should remind us how mavericky John McCain is NOT. The confidence over Kerry's debate performance versus an angry Bush should give us pause. Especially since various counties in the United States still use electronic voting machines that can be hacked and maniulated.

Never give up. Never give in.
--the BB