It was less than five minutes into last night’s debate, and it became crystal clear (as if there had been any doubt previously) that George W. Bush is a walking, talking collection of sound bites, prevarications, and willful misinterpretations of John Kerry’s words. He spent 90 minutes parroting the same half-truths, generalizations, and outright lies that he spouted in the first debate. And when he wasn’t doing that he was avoiding incovenient questions and displaying his overarching arrogance.
It pains me to have to hammer on this theme repeatedly, but I do so because it’s true: George W. Bush is an empty suit and an unreconstructed liar. The man is willing to say or do ANYTHING that will get him another four years in the White House. No lie is too big, no accusation to ridiculous to be levelled at John Kerry, no oversimplification too ridiculous to make.
Bush did little to shed light on what he would bring to the next four years, but he had plenty of energy to attempt to paint John Kerry as the emobodiment of a weak, appeasing Liberal. The problem is that George W. Bush is, to quote She Who Endures My Myriad Eccentricities, a jerk. He is fundamentally and constitutionally incapable of viewing the world in anything but black and white. This would be well and good- if the world was a black and white place. Of course, our world is nothing but shades of grey. John Kerry seems to recognize this, and he also seems to have the intellectual and philosophical agility to deal effectively with this reality. George W. Bush seems able to cope with the world only when he reduces it to it’s most black and white- Us vs. Them, Good vs. Evil, American Liberators vs. Insidious Evildoers.
The problem with George W. Bush is that he seems to feel that a smirk, a few half-truths, snide accusations, and foreign leader name-dropping is what passes for leadership. George W. Bush is an empty vessel, the embodiment of mediocrity and The Lowest Common Denominator, and who does not represent or poassess any of the leadership qualities that makes this country great. If it wasn’t already clear, last night’s debate should have cemented this reality: WE DESERVE BETTER.
