Al Gore: “The biggest single difference between the debates this year and four years ago is that President Bush cannot simply make promises. He has a record. And I hope that voters will recall the last time Mr. Bush stood on stage for a presidential debate. If elected, he said, he would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. He promised that his tax cuts would create millions of new jobs. He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington. Above all, he pledged that if he put American troops into combat: ‘The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well defined.’
Comparing these grandiose promises to his failed record, it’s enough to make anyone want to, well, sigh.” (New York Times )
The essay, which argues some fairly vehement points, surprisingly fizzles out in its concluding remark. And in arguing that Kerry should not be intimidated by Bush’s rhetorical style or debating track record but should be about the ‘beef’, it ignores the fact that many voters are taken in by Bush’s beguiling sophistry and unable to think about what substance there might be behind it. With the TV audience’s post-MTV attention span, Kerry’s appeal to Bush’s abysmal record might well meet with blank incomprehension in most of the flickering blue-lit living rooms.
