Well, last night’s debate was a good one. Kerry scored some good points and overall won on style. President Bush held his own on the issues and one hopes that Americans will ultimately see the difference between these two candidates. President Bush has been doing this job for four years and knows how things work, while Senator Kerry has ideas which look great on paper and guarantee nothing.

Here are the points that really stood out for me after last night’s debate:

1. Kerry critisizes Bush for not being multinational enough with Iraq, yet not being unilateral enough with North Korea.

2. Kerry insists that “bilateral” and “multilateral” talks with North Korea, at the same time, could have worked.
3. Kerry attacks the President for “outsourcing” the war on terror, especially in tracking down Osama bin Laden, then chides the President for putting too many American troops in harm’s way and not getting enough troops from other nations to fight with us.
4. Kerry insists we need to win the war in Iraq faster, yet voted against the $87 billion that is helping to make that happen and endlessly complains about the cost of the war. You want to accelerate the war you need to pump in more money.
5. Kerry endlessly claims that he’ll expand the coalition and restore our reputation while actively denigrating our allies, including calling our current partners in Iraq the coalition of the “bribed and coerced” and undercutting Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi’s credibility on national television.
6. Kerry insists that the wealthiest Americans should pay more taxes so that businesses can get a tax break and/or incentives to keep jobs here in the US, but he ignores the fact that giving tax breaks across the board, including to the wealthiest Americans, does exactly that already. Many of those wealthy Americans are, after all, owners of small and medium-sized businesses.
7. Kerry voted to cut funding to our intelligence agencies after the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and now complains that the President is not rebuilding those agencies fast enough.
8. Kerry calls for a “sensitive” war on terror while al Qaeda terrorists kidnap Americans, cut their heads off, then stream the video over the Internet. Oh yeah, and the terrorists like to shoot fleeing children in the back and blow them up at every opportunity.
9. On the day of the debate, one of Kerry’s very FIRST comments was how his heart went out to struggling Floridians. Yet, while President Bush was out visiting those struggling families, taking stock of their losses and talking with people who had lost EVERYTHING, Kerry was off getting a manicure.
10. and last but not least, Kerry says he will do, basically, everything the President is doing now, only “faster and better.” [pardon my loose quotes]

I think from now on I’m going to begin calling Senator Kerry the “Great On Paper President,” (GOPP). Though, he might be somewhat insulted by the close association between “GOPP” and “GOP.”

Really though, the guy accuses President Bush of living in a fantasy world?! I think we must assume one of two things about Kerry in regards to all of his rhetoric:

1. Kerry really believes all of this and is, therefore, incredibly naive when it comes to foreign policy.

2. Kerry is just blowing smoke to win the election, which was fine on September 10 of 2001 but which is out of step today, especially while we’re still at war.

Feel free to decide for yourself. Personally, I’m thinking option 2, but that’s just me.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com