DOWN WITH PANTS!

A couple moments from the debate really stood out for me excluding Bush's HUGE gaffe about Osama. The first two saw Bush get really upset and go off on major tangents. The third is just an illustration of how out of touch he really is.

The first one was when Schieffer asked "The gap between rich and poor is growing wider. More people are dropping into poverty. Yet the minimum wage has been stuck at, what, $5. 15 an hour now for about seven years. Is it time to raise it?"

Kerry gave a good enough answer to a decent question. But all Bush said about the question was "Actually, Mitch McConnell had a minimum-wage plan that I supported that would have increased the minimum wage," and then went into a minute and a half lecture about education that was so off question it was incredible. He looked rabid during it. This is also when he said that "reading is the new civil right." What does that even mean?

He also said this tasty nugget in that same tangent - "Many inner-city kids just move through. We've stopped that practice now by measuring early. And when we find a problem, we spend extra money to correct it." This was one of the most ignorant statements I have heard in years and years. Because there are no suburban (white) schools that don't just move kids through. Really the problem is those damn inner-city (minority) schools! Ask any inner-city teacher or principal if they recognized a problem and actually had money thrown at them to fix it and I'd be willing to bet they would say absolutely not.

Following that question came this very interesting exchange where Bush seemed to absolutely lose his cool and showed how disciplined John Kerry is during a debate (this is taken straight from the debate transcript):

SCHIEFFER: Mr. President, I want to go back to something Senator Kerry said earlier tonight and ask a follow-up of my own. He said -- and this will be a new question to you -- he said that you had never said whether you would like to overturn Roe v. Wade. So I'd ask you directly, would you like to? (Editor's note - Bush cut Schieffer off. He finished the question but Bush was already well into his rant)

BUSH: What he's asking me is, will I have a litmus test for my judges? And the answer is, no, I will not have a litmus test. I will pick judges who will interpret the Constitution, but I'll have no litmus test.

SCHIEFFER: Senator Kerry, you'd like to respond?

KERRY: Is that a new question or a 30-second question?

SCHIEFFER: That's a new question for Senator -- for President Bush.

KERRY: Which time limit. . .

SCHIEFFER: You have 90 seconds.

KERRY: Thank you very much.

Well, again, the president didn't answer the question.

I'll answer it straight to America. I'm not going to appoint a judge to the Court who's going to undo a constitutional right, whether it's the First Amendment, or the Fifth Amendment, or some other right that's given under our courts today -- under the Constitution. And I believe that the right of choice is a constitutional right.

Kerry comes out and answers the question perfectly and then uses all of his allotted time while Bush used maybe 10 to 15 seconds of his and left both Bob Schieffer and John Kerry completely confused. It was like Bush said "How Dare You" to Schieffer and refused to say anything else.

Bush's ignorance of middle and lower class America was amazing to me. He just doesn't fully understand what's really going on. He looks at all of these statistics and stays in his little bubble and never really gets the full story. This was illustrated by the comment about inner city schools from earlier but was really evident when he was asked "...what do you say to someone in this country who has lost his job to someone overseas who's being paid a fraction of what that job paid here in the United States?

Bush gave a long winded answer about education (I guess it must be there one and only true success so they keep harping on it. To me it was still a failure) which included "I'd say, Bob, I've got policies to continue to grow our economy and create the jobs of the 21st century. And here's some help for you to go get an education. Here's some help for you to go to a community college. We've expanded trade adjustment assistance. We want to help pay for you to gain the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century."

Bush truly doesn't understand that the jobs that are being sent overseas in many cases were filled by qualified college graduates that have high educations. The jobs being shipped overseas are jobs of the 21st century. Computer jobs for example. So when you say "go to community college" to an Ivy League grad who has lost his job what are they going to say? The point is that going to community college is most likely a downgrade to these people who have lost jobs. The jobs you can get trained for at a community college are jobs for the 20th century and even most of those have been outsourced.

This is not necessarily a slam on community colleges, they do alot of good for alot of people. I am a community college and Bowling Green State University dropout and even having gone for a few years was incredibly beneficial and helpful. However if you go to a CC expecting to find a great job right away you will be sadly mistaken especially with all of these incredibly talented unemployed workers looking for the same jobs. This is the fault of Bush's economic policies and not the American workers or community college students.

I don't have a college degree but I have a great (yet low paying) job. I consider myself extremely fortunate and lucky to always land on my feet despite myself. It helps to have a great support system of family and friends who are basically like unemployment benefits in a way. Some people are not so fortunate.

Anyway, I'm sick of politics and I can't wait for this to get over. I'm a fun loving person and this has not been that much fun. Please god, let John Kerry win and I can go back to a the blissful ignorant haze I used to live in.