n I liked what Debra Saunders had to say about the debate:

During the debate, Kerry observed that the first President Bush did not push U.S. troops beyond Basra. Said Kerry, as Bush pere "wrote in his book, because there was no viable exit strategy. And he said our troops would become occupiers in a bitterly hostile land. That's exactly where we find ourselves today."

So why did the world-savvy Kerry vote for the war resolution?

Thursday night, Kerry also likened going into Iraq in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with "Franklin Roosevelt invading Mexico in response to Pearl Harbor. That's what we have here."

Then why did Kerry vote for the war resolution?

n News Max offers this:

Staffers at the Kerry campaign may want to put the cork back in their champagne bottles after they examine the internal numbers in the latest Gallup poll.

Sure, most felt that the Massachusetts Democrat was the better debater by a whopping margin of 53 to 37 percent.

Kerry did even better when Gallup asked which candidate expressed himself clearly, beating Bush 60 to 32 percent.
But when asked which of the two was more believable, it was Bush over Kerry - 50 to 45 percent.

On which candidate did better on the issues, again it was Bush over Kerry, 49 to 46 percent.

Those surveyed by Gallup also apparently didn't buy the media's line that the president came off as irritated and petulant. Asked who was more likable, it was Bush over Kerry again, 48 to 41 percent.

Bush seemed like the underdog in the debate. People tend to root for the underdog. Imagine that, a sitting war-time president as the underdog in a debate. His opponent would really have to be one seriously smarmy lawyer to give up the underdog banner in that situation.

n That’s really a big part of it with me. I just don’t like Kerry. Personally. As a man. You know, as much as I was disgusted by Clinton’s public policies and failures, I kinda liked the guy. I couldn’t help it. I just saw him as a big ol’ fat southern boy who liked chicks and cheeseburgers and thought he knew it all. Sounds like my friends and much of my family. I always kinda had the idea that sitting around with ol’ Slick, knocking back a few Bass Ales, fishin’ and tellin’ lies, would be a lot of fun.

Now, with Kerry, I’m both disgusted and repelled by his political record AND I dislike him on a personal level, as well. Maybe it’s just a culture thing, I don’t know. All I know is that there’s something about his bottle-tanned, windsurfing, well-manicured, smirking presence that makes me feel certain that I’d not let him in my house. He seems like a cross between an insurance salesman and a mortician.

n Speaking of big ol’ fat southern boys that I like, one of my all time favorite performers and song writers is Steve Earle. His albums Copperhead Road, Guitar Town, and I Feel Alright have dominated my stereo for years. Now, I’ve always known that Steve was liberal, but I didn’t let it effect my enjoyment of his music. I’ll even admit that some of his anti-death penalty lyrics played some role in my personal conversion on that issue a few years ago (although my opposition to the death penalty has more to do with Christianity than politics). Nonetheless, Steve’s liberal leanings seem to have finally started having an adverse effect on his work. He’s thrown together a quickie album in time to cash in on the whole anti-Bush fad:

(Earle) says, "I'm an unapologetic lefty. There is no excuse for anyone to go hungry in the richest country in the world or without health care. I wanted the record to be about a lot of issues around the election. But I wrote it in a hurry, and what's most p***ed about right now is the war."

Some of Steve’s liberal lyrics have moved me emotionally in the past. His John Walker’s Blues struck me as an eloquent theoretical examination of what may have gone wrong in the life of John Walker Lindh, the infamous American Taliban fighter. I’m willing to give the kid the benefit of the doubt and believe that he might have been a normal, healthy American kid if something somewhere along the line hadn’t gone terribly wrong in his life. As I hear Earle’s song, it takes that point of view and examines the case with some sympathy. Another of Earle’s songs, Billy Austin, is as powerful an artistic expression in opposition to the death penalty as I’ve ever heard. So, when Steve takes his time and writes music from his heart, he pleads his case very well. It’s a bummer, both politically and artistically, that he’s throwing together a quick album in order to jump on the anti-Bush bandwagon before election day. I’d come to expect better of him.

n In what’s becoming a regular feature here, I can’t let a blog post go by without criticizing another horrible editorial by my local paper, the Roanoke Times. I can’t resist taking the closing paragraph apart piece by piece:

Imagine if the world still stood solidly beside America. Imagine if Iraq had not been invaded, or had been occupied under the U.N. banner. Imagine if friends had not been spurned. Osama bin-Laden might be in U.S. hands instead of protected by allies. Al-Qaida and its offshoots might be destroyed instead of expanding with angry new members. Afghanistan might not be reverting to warlordism. Muslims might not be united in distrust and even hatred of America. Old allies might not be sitting on the sidelines while the United States carries 90 percent of the burden in a seething Iraq.

Let’s look at that one line at a time…

Imagine if the world still stood solidly beside America.

Oh, we’re gonna do the John Lennon thing. Good. That’s what I want from my local newspaper. Beatlesque posturing.

Imagine if Iraq had not been invaded, or had been occupied under the U.N. banner.

Alright, they’d still be under the thumb of a butcher and madman who killed his own people by the thousands, tortured his political opponents, and defied the world. Sounds like Eden to me.

Imagine if friends had not been spurned. Osama bin-Laden might be in U.S. hands instead of protected by allies.

Am I reading that right? Is the editorial writer implying that some of our allies are protecting Osama because we spurned them? Spurned them? WTF?

Would you even take a blogger seriously if he/she wrote this kind of thing?

Al-Qaida and its offshoots might be destroyed instead of expanding with angry new members.

Oh, and it’s the angry new members you gotta watch out for. They’re so much more dangerous than the passive old ones who destroyed the World Trade Center.

Afghanistan might not be reverting to warlordism.

Or, they might be developing a rocketship to use to colonize Mars! Boy, this hypothetical thing is FUN!

Muslims might not be united in distrust and even hatred of America.

Oh, it’s ALL the Muslims who hate us now? Great! No sense trying to tell them apart anymore! Let the bullets fly!

Old allies might not be sitting on the sidelines while the United States carries 90 percent of the burden in a seething Iraq.

Let me guess… you took careful notes during the debate the other night, didn’t you?

God, I love liberals. How wonderfully pliable their academic world is.