IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE how Bob Schieffer could have been more pro-Kerry in last night's debate--short of actually wearing a Kerry-Edwards button.
Which makes the president's win even more impressive. Despite talking points cueing questions to Kerry on jobs and minimum wage, and intended-to-put-him-on-the-defensive set-ups about "what do you say to the man who lost his job," "assault weapons," and "is sexual orientation a choice" hardballs at Bush's head, the president calmly turned the questions to the issue he wanted to get to and put Kerry in a corner he can not possibly escape from in 20 days.
It is the global test, government healthcare, do-nothing for 20 years in the Senate corner. It is the corner where Social Security is just fine, where $2.2 trillion in proposed spending doesn't have to be squared with an $800 million--at most--raising tax hike, and where the "far left bank" of the mainstream marks a boundary. Forget Kerry's blunders. (The introduction of the vice president's daughter into the debate was a huge blunder, as was the "I passed 56 bills!" howler and the uncomfortable, "I married up" moment.) For all his lawyerly eloquence, Kerry just doesn't connect, and cannot connect because the electorate knows a few things about guns and taxes and social security. Twenty years ago candidates could ignore facts because 30 minutes of nightly news didn't really push policy debates into living rooms.
Call me crazy, but I think the president is in a very good place 19 days out.
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