JoeyBahr.com

After the debate Friday night, I was struck by something, Bush and Kerry really want to go after each other. For a while in the early part of the debate I swore the moderator or the Secret Service was going to have to break them up after one threw a punch.

Of course for that to happen one of the candidates would have had to cross the line on the floor that seperated them. Which also means one of the rules would have been violated. Though really what would be the problem with just throwing out the rules?

Sure in the first debate, the 32 pages of rules effectively hand-cuffed the President. That defied the conventional wisdom that the debate playing field was massively tilted in his direction. Kerry was masterful at exploiting the rules to his advantage. In the second debate, the rules really didn’t have as much of an impact, well besides that one moment where Bush steamrolled the moderator, ABC’s Charlie Gibson, to make a reply to a statement by Kerry.

Imagine for a moment a place where Bush and Kerry would be able to have a Lincoln-Douglas style debate, directly talking to each other and openly challenging the other. You get the sense from Friday night, that both would welcome the opportunity. Now Bush’s handlers might be scared to death of it. That would mean he would be almost totally unscripted for 90 minutes.

The greatest thing for the voters about this format would be seeing the candidates in a totally hostile environment and seeing how they react. So far we have seen that when confronted with a challenge, that Bush gets flustered and falls back on what he is confortable with. While Kerry is calm but determined and pushes on.

I doubt that the moderator for this last debate, CBS’s Bob Scheiffer, will toss out the rules, but here is one vote for him to do just that. If for no other reason than it would give the networks some of the greatest reality TV of the entire season.

Yeah, I’m posting again. I’m on fire tonight, even busting out the rapid fire. OHHH YYEEEAAAHHHH

(I must apologize for the really bad Macho Man Randy Savage impression there.)

As I was typing that last post a thought came to mind. Think back several months to the last formal news conference that Bush gave. A report asked him the question, “Mr. President. In the last campaign, you were asked a question about the biggest mistake you’d made in your life, and you used to like to joke that it was trading Sammy Sosa. You’ve looked back before 9/11 for what mistakes might have been made. After 9/11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say, and what lessons have you learned from it?”

Bush hemmed and hawed for a few moments. You could see a look on his face of both bewilderment and to a slight anger. He ultimately said that he has not made any mistakes. Most people would probably question him on that one, but that is not the point of this post.

What is, is the mannerisms of the president. There have been several articles since the first debate about how sheltered Bush is. The result of this sheltering is the display we saw a week ago. A man who clearly cannot handle being critized. He has surrounded himself with a combination of yes men and strong leaders. It is this arrangement that has allowed Bush to have his information filtered to him. Essentially making life and death decisions about how to run this nation by looking at the world through a straw.

The problem is that when he finally has to put down the straw and see the world at large, he is not ready for it. It is clear that he does not like to be ambushed.

Now he has to put down the straw again and the question is will he be ready for it this time?

While it is very likely that he will be, ultimately the real answer to that question lies in how much the questions the voters ask tomorrow night follow the script or not. If the questions are the safe ones the Bush White House prepares for, W. will come out with flying colors. But, if John Kerry can get him off his game any or if a voter asks an unexpected question, then wheels will come flying off again.

In the grand scheme of things, this should be the biggest thing a voter takes into account this election. Is Bush really the resolute rock that he tries to portray? Or is he someone who really does not know how to roll with the punches and adjust to the situation?

Finally a weapon of mass destruction from Iraq has been found. What was the weapon? Sarin nerve gas? Anthrax? A 10 kiloton nuclear weapon? Acutally it’s none of the above. Instead the weapon is a report by Charles Duefler stating that Iraq didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction at all.

You’re probably saying to yourself, “Wait a minute, isn’t the title of this post ‘Why the Duelfer Report Doesn’t Matter’?”

Why, yes, yes it is.

“Then why doesn’t it matter if you are also saying that it is a weapon of mass destruction?”

The reason it does not matter is that no one in the press has the balls to challenge the press on it. Until the media steps up and asks the question, “Mr. President, when did you know that Saddam Hussein did not have WMDs?” Then again to think of it, that’s a horrible question to ask him, given how he likes to play fast and loose with the facts. It wouldn’t be too hard for him to say, “Well it was Wednesday when I found out that.”

The root of the problems we have in Iraq today goes back to a press that has been more than cowered into the corner by the Bush White House. I’m not meaning they have to assholes when they actually get a press conference with the man, but they can’t just toss him softballs.

So ultimately a report that would have caused a great amount of problems for the last president, will probably go softly into the dark night. Taht is until the time comes for the historians to tell us all that really happened right now.

That is a very good question. I have to admit upfront that I am not a devotee of the “Church of the Blog.” What I mean by that is I am not a person who lives and breathes blogs. This is my second attempt at starting a blog. I don’t know if it will work or not. I all depends on if I can get in the habit of it or not.

Why do I feel the need to blog? Yeah, part of it is classic herd mentality. A lot of other people are doing it so why not give a try. Hopefully it won’t hurt as bad as that jump off the cliff I took a few years back.

The other main reason is to give me a public outlet for writing. I have always been a far better speaker than writer. When I was a Senior in college I was finally able to write at a level close to my public speaking ability. Since graduation, that writing ability has deteriorated rapidly. Now that I am back in school, I need to regain my ability to write.

Now your probably wondering what I’m going to be blogging about. Well that is another great question. You sure are full of them today. Probably the thing I’ll blog about the most is politics, as that is what I know. I have been working in politics for about 6 years now, but I am looking to take a break from it for a while. Just because I’m taking a break from working in politics does not mean I will not have any opinions or insights to share. That is what this blog is for. I probably will also talk about other things going on in the world or life in general.

So I hope to hear what you think about my writing and other topics. Wish me luck in keeping this blog alive.

Oh and keep feeding me all of these great questions.