The fight for White House

 

Bush and Kerry slugged it out for the third time in a televised debate

 

A.H. Jaffor Ullah

 

The final debate in this year's presidential race just took place at the campus of Arizona State University at Tempe.  The CBS's veteran news correspondent Bob Schieffer served as the moderator.  The election is only 20 days away from now and myriads of polls indicate that the country is evenly divided between the two candidates.  Therefore, any mistake done by either of the candidates could be a costly one.  Both the candidates did not make any major mistakes.  Bush was seen more relaxed tonight whereas Kerry was a bit more tense than usual.  Kerry again gave a flawless performance.  Bush has given the best performance of his life.

 

Unlike the last debate where audiences asked questions directly to the candidates, this debate was more like the first one in which the moderator asked questions to both George Bush and John Kerry on domestic and economic issues.  At the end of the debate, each candidate hoped to stamp a last favorable impression on millions of voters before Election Day, which is November 2, 2004.

 

Even though the debate tonight was supposed to zoom exclusively on the domestic issues, both the candidates brought up the war in Iraq and global terrorism as well.  Mr. Bush touted his records on tax cuts and a reform in education.  However, he repeatedly labeled John Kerry a liberal who would raise the tax while slowing down the engine of growth.  Bush also scared the Americans by telling them that Kerry would turn the nation's healthcare over to government bureaucrats.   

 

The challenger, John Kerry, promoted his healthcare plan to Americans.  He also promised to ease the financial pinch on middle-class families.  He highlighted on job losses and made accusations that the Bush administration had spent four years doling out favors to powerful friends while shifting the tax burden on the middle class.  To this effect, Kerry gave many hard numbers to strengthen his views.

 

The Bush camp hoped that this debate would erase any lingering doubts and negative impressions left by the Bush's scowling face in the first.  In the second debate, he gave the impression that he was too eager to confront his challenger.  Senator Kerry tried his best to maintain his cool throughout the debate.  He wanted to give the impression to Americans that the voters should feel safe turning the governance to him.  Many undecided voters who would decide the fate of this election have watched the last debate.  Both Kerry and Bush tried very hard to convince those undecided voters in the tossup sates and to persuade their supporters to turn out in large numbers.

 

Right after the debate, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) hosted a discussion on how the two candidates performed in the debate.  One commentator had said that John Kerry delivered a Kennedyesque type of performance.  In 1960, when John F. Kennedy was running against VP Richard M. Nixon, he (Kennedy) had to define who he was and what was his dream for America.  In 2004, another JFK from the same state of Massachusetts had to do the same thing tonight.  Kerry's message was very clear.  He has a vision for America.  Altogether, both the candidates fielded 20 questions.  Most questions were related to domestic policy.  But considering how the U.S. is now involved in Iraq and fighting a global terrorism, the first question was on safety and security of Americans at home. 

John Kerry had to answer that question first followed by George Bush.  I will provide the transcript of that question later in my write-up.  The other topics on which questions were asked are: healthcare, scarcity of flu vaccine in America, Kerry's promise not to raise tax on middle income Americans, job outsourcing, homosexual marriage, affordable health insurance, leadership quality, funding of the national health insurance, fixing social security system, amending immigration laws, tackling the income disparities among rich and poor Americans, drafting (recruitment for army), assault weapon ban, affirmative action policy, ideological divide in the capital, and the last question was on how their wives, daughters have influenced the candidates’ decision making.

 

George Bush handled his administration's policy on social agenda and in particular, his answer to immigration policy change and education reform very well.  However, Mr. Kerry outshone Mr. Bush on healthcare reform, preserving the social security system, ban on assault rifle, a just America, and reduction of tax loopholes for the rich, etc.  Overall, Kerry proved that he is an outstanding debater and better yet, he has a vision for America.  George Bush, on the other hand, had to defend his record.  His assertion that Kerry was more liberal than Senator Ted Kennedy was and he (Kerry) will increase the size and budget of the government if elected were designed to scare the voters. 

 

Bush's supporters may say that their candidate outperformed Mr. Kerry on substance but in my opinion, Kerry delivered yet another fine performance.  He was an articulate speaker who gave a mouthful of statistics to drive home his points.  He came out as an intellectual and compassionate politician notwithstanding Bush's characterization of Kerry as a big spender and liberal Democrat.

 

Here is some excerpt from the debate.  Here the moderator, Bob Schieffer, asked the first question on national security and safety of American, which I thought was one of the best questions asked in this debate.

 

Bob Schieffer (To John Kerry): Senator, I want to set the stage for this discussion by asking the question that I think hangs over all of our politics today and is probably on the minds of many people watching this debate tonight and that is - Will our children and grand children ever live in the world as safe and secure as the world in which we grew up? 

 

John Kerry: First of all Bob thank you for moderating tonight, thank you Arizona State for welcoming us, thank you to the Presidential Commission for undertaking this enormous task.  We are proud to be here Mr. President.  I'm glad to be here with you again to share similarities and differences with the American people.  Will we ever be safe and secure again?  Yes, we absolutely must be.  That's the goal.  Now how do we achieve it is the most critical component of it.  I believe that this president regrettably rushed us into a war, made decisions about the foreign policy, pushed the alliances away, and as a result, America is now bearing an extraordinary burden.  We are not as safe as we ought to be, the measurement is not are we safer, the measurement is: are we as safe as we ought to be?  And there are host of options that this president had available to him like making sure that there are ports in America containers are uninspected only inspected 95% of them coming today are uninspected; that's not good enough!  People will fly on airplanes today the cargo hold is not X-rayed but the baggage is.  That is not good enough.  Firehouses do not have enough fire fighters in them.  Police officers have been cut from the streets of America because the president decided to cut the cop's program.  So, we can do a better job of homeland security.  I can do a better job of waging smarter and more effective war on terror and guarantee that we go after the terrorists, I'll hunt them down, and we'll kill them, we'll capture them, we'll do whatever is necessary to be safe and I pledge this to you America, I'll do it in a way that Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy and others did.  We'll build the strongest alliances, where world joins together, where we've the best intelligence, and where we are able ultimately to be more safe and secure.

 

Bob Schieffer (To Bush): Mr. President, you've 90 seconds.

 

George Bush: Bob, thank you very much; I want to thank Arizona State as well.  Yes, we can be safe and secure.  If we stand against the terrorists and if we spread for human liberty around the world.  I've got a comprehensive strategy not only to chase down the al-Qaeda wherever they exist, we are making progress, there are three-quarters of al-Qaeda leaders have been brought to justice, but to male sure that the countries that harbor terrorists are held to account.  As a result of securing ourselves and ridding the Talibans out of Afghanistan.  The Afghan people had election this weekend, and the first voter was a 19-year old woman.  Think about that.  Freedom is on the march.  We held to account the terrorist regime of Saddam Hussein.  In other words, in order to make sure we are secure there must be a comprehensive plan.  My opponent just this weekend talked about how terrorism could be reduced to a nuisance ... comparing it to prostitution, illegal gambling, I think that attitude that point of view is dangerous.  I don't think you can secure America for the long run if you don't have a comprehensive view.  As to how to beat these people.  At home we will do everything we can to protect the homeland.  I signed the Homeland Security Bill to better align out assets and resources; my opponent voted against it.  We are doing everything we can to protect our borders and ports.  But absolutely we can be secure in the long run.  It just takes good strong leadership. 

 

Bob Schieffer (To Kerry):  Anything to add, Senator Kerry?

 

John Kerry: Yes, when the president had an opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, he took his focus off of him, outsourced the job to Afghan warlords and Osama bin Laden escaped.  Six month after he said, Osama bin Laden must be caught dead or alive.  This president was asked, "Where is Osama bin Laden?"  He said, "I don't know.  I don't really think about him very much, I'm not that concerned."  We need a president who will stay deadly focused on the real war on terror. 

 

Bob Schieffer: Mr. President?

 

George Bush: I don't think I've ever said on not worrying about Osama bin Laden.  It is one of those exaggerations.  Of course, we are worried about Osama bin Laden.  We are on the hunt after Osama bin Laden.  We are using every asset at out disposal to get Osama bin Laden.  My opponent says that this war is a matter of intelligence and law enforcement.  Now this is war in which it is a matter of using of ever assets that are in our disposal to keep the American people protected. 

 

[End of the first question].

 

After this, the moderator asked 19 additional questions.  At the end, the two candidates were asked to deliver their 2 min closing statement.  Senator Kerry just gave a flowing speech, a speech better than President Bush gave. 

 

In summary, the third debate is over now.  Mr. Kerry excelled in the debate but candidate Bush improved his performance albeit with his halting speech.  The candidates will be on their stumps beginning from tomorrow until the campaign end on November 1, 2004.  John Kerry used the three debates to define his candidacy for the highest office in America.  The campaign for White House is now on high gear.  Expect to hear more rhetoric from both the candidates.  The way electoral votes are shaping up, there is every bit possibility that the challenger may outsmart the president by securing 284 electoral votes.  In my next writing, I will show how Kerry campaign is working very hard to secure that many electoral votes on the face of popular polls that tell us that the election is a dead heat.

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Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA