George W. Bush and the Truth: Total Strangers
Wizard of Oz at the second presidential debates

October 12 2004
Counterbias.com
Dennis Jones
D E M O C R A T I C   V I E W

Bush v. Kerry, Round 2. What was painfully obvious to most observers was that the President of the United States was mad as hell and he wasn't going to take this anymore. He vaulted from his chair and loudly snarled his responses. He left no attack unuttered, even when it bore no resemblance to the questions asked. On the whole he was particularly contemptuous of John Kerry and he didn't bother trying to hide his feelings. He was also especially effective at assassinating the truth. Meet the real Wizard of Oz!

The Wizard couldn't wait to hammer Mr. Kerry for his vote on the $87 billion in 2003. "He said he voted for the $87 billion, and voted against it right before he voted for it. That sends a confusing signal to people." He hurried to add that, "I don't see how you can lead this country in a time of war, in a time of uncertainty if you change your mind because of politics. . . You've got to be consistent when you're the president. There's a lot of pressures. And you've got to be firm and consistent" Did anybody say steel tariffs here? How about creating the Department of Homeland Security or the 9/11 Commission? Condoleeza Rice won't testify, then she will; Bush will only testify for an hour with the two chairmen, and then for an unlimited time with everyone; Ahmed Chalabi is a trusted Iraqi advisor, and then Bush doesn't know him. How about when the Commander-in-Chief supported the tobacco quota system and then suddenly decided to support the buyout program when southern tobacco farmers rebelled? Toto, the Wizard has balls bigger than Kansas!

The day before the debate the Wizard admitted that Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, but went on to say that, "He retained the knowledge, the materials, the means and the intent to produce weapons of mass destruction and could have passed this knowledge to our terrorist enemies." He was asked if he believed that this was a justification for invading Iraq since that could be said about many other nations, including North Korea. The Great Leader answered that, "Each situation's different. . .but 9/11 changed it all." He said that, "I saw a unique threat in Saddam Hussein." He then proceeded to spend an entire minute not explaining how this threat was unique.

Finally, in exasperation, with all the cylinders of that highly tuned analytical brain firing, he asked "Remember the last debate? My opponent said that America must pass a global test before we used force to protect ourselves [what Kerry really said was that we should be able to prove to the world that we knew what the hell we were doing]. That's the kind of mindset that says sanctions were working [they were]. That's the kind of mindset that said let's keep it at the United Nations and hope things go well [we didn't]. Saddam Hussein was a threat because he could have given weapons of mass destruction to terrorists enemies [how could he give what he didn't have?]. Sanctions were not working [yes, they were]. The United Nations was not effective at removing Saddam Hussein" [disarmament was the goal, not removal].

Kerry, in his wishy-washy way, answered that "The goal of the sanctions was not to remove Saddam Hussein. It was to remove the weapons of mass destruction. And Mr. president, just yesterday the Duelfer report told you and the whole world, they worked. He didn't have weapons of mass destruction, Mr. president. That was the objective. And if we had used smart diplomacy, we could have saved $200 billion and an invasion of Iraq. And right now Osama bin Laden might be in jail or dead. That's the war against terror." Sounds pretty intelligent and presidential to me.

Next, the Wizard-in-Chief clued us in on how to lead in a war by saying that "I remember sitting in the White House looking at those generals, saying do you have what you need in this war? Do you have what it takes? . . . And they looked me in the eye and said, yes sir, Mr. President. Of course, I listened to our generals. That's what a president does. A president tests the strategy and relies upon good military people to execute that strategy."

Unfortunately, Senator Kerry rudely pointed out that, "You rely on good military people to execute the military component of the strategy. But winning the peace is larger than just the military component. General Shinseki had the wisdom to say you're going to need several hundred thousand troops to win the peace. Military's job is to win the war. The president's job is to win the peace. The president did not do what was necessary. Didn't bring in enough nations. Didn't deliver the help. Didn't close off the borders. Didn't even guard the ammo dumps. And now our kids are being killed with ammos right out of that dump." Damn inconvenient facts! Game, set, match: John Kerry!

Having been bloodied on the field of foreign policy, the Wizard then laid a little of his domestic policy wisdom on us. When asked why he has blocked the re-importation of drugs from Canada, he fell back on an old weapon in his arsenal: he lied. "I haven't yet. Just want to make sure they're safe. When a drug comes in from Canada I want to make sure it cures you and doesn't kill you. And that's why the FDA and that's why the surgeon general are looking very carefully to make sure it can be done in a safe way." The next day his old ally in the Congress, Senator Orin Hatch, volunteered that the terrorists might get at us by shipping us poisoned drugs (I'm not joking, but I wish that I was - these people are running the government)! Reality check folks! This is Canada we're talking about here. I don't know how long it has been since the Wizard has been to Canada, but they have indoor plumbing and phones and television and stuff. We're not exactly talking third world here. The truth is that he has had four years to set up a program but he won't because he is owned by the drug companies!

Senator Kerry was asked what he proposed to do about the rising cost of health care and the frivolous lawsuits that the Wizard claims are responsible for it. Kerry agreed that some tort reform is necessary but pointed out that liability lawsuits only account for 1% of the total cost of healthcare. He also pointed out that "I have a plan that will take the catastrophic cases out of the system, off your backs, pay for it out of a federal fund, which lowers the premiums for everybody in America, makes American business more competitive and makes health care more affordable." He said that he would pay for it by rescinding the tax cuts for those making more than $200,000 a year. That would take the highest rate from 35% to 39%. He's not exactly driving the rich to the poor farm, folks.

The Wizard almost tripped over himself getting up to respond. He excitedly intoned that, "First, the National Journal named Senator Kennedy (sic) the most liberal senator of all. And that's saying something in that bunch. And what are his health programs? First, he says he's for medical liability reform, particularly for OB-GYNs. There's a bill on the floor of the United States Senate that he could have showed up and voted for if he's so much for it. Secondly, he says that medical liability costs only caused one percent increase. That shows a lack of understanding. Doctors practice defensive medicine because of all the frivolous lawsuits that cost our government $28 billion a year. And finally, he says he's going to have a novel health care plan. You know what it is? The federal government is going to run it."

I took the Vice President's advice and went to factcheck.org to see who was right and guess what I found out? They said that, "These nonpartisan agencies (the General Accounting Office and the Congressional Budget Office) suggest savings from passage of limits on malpractice damages  --- if there are any savings at all -- would be relatively small." They went on to say that the Wizard's charge that the government was going to run Kerry's healthcare plan "echoed a grossly misleading claim made in his earlier TV ad, which said Kerry's health plan would put 'Washington bureaucrats in control' of medical decisions, putting 'big government in charge. Not you, not your doctor.' That view isn't supported by neutral experts." Maybe the Wizard should spend a little more time reading up on this stuff before he sticks that cowboy boot in his mouth!

When he was asked about the environmental policy of his administration the Wizard said, "We've got a good common-sense policy. Now I'm going to tell you what I really think is going to happen over time is technology is going to change the way we live for the good for the environment. . . I guess you'd say I'm a good steward of the land." Please try to control the laughter here. He offered up a few examples of that policy which are so twisted that calling them lies would be a disservice to legitimate lies!

Kerry, in the understatement of the last 100 years, then pointed out that, "Boy, to listen to that, the president, I don't think, is living in a world of reality with respect to the environment . . . Now, when it comes to the issue of the environment, this is one of the worst administrations in modern history." 

In just under four years this administration has systematically undermined or eliminated almost every environmental protection of the last half century. By cleverly using deceptive jargon they have consistently ruled against the people and in favor of the polluters. They didn't get all that campaign money from the logging, mining, power and oil and gas companies to protect the environment.  

Finally the Wizard was asked to "give three instances in which you came to realize you had made a wrong decision and what you did to correct it." He ignored the catastrophic decision to invade Iraq, his slavish obeisance to his tax cuts regardless of their consequence, his shortsighted decision to deny federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, his sellout to the drug companies on drug re-importation, his crappy environmental decisions and on and on and on. He finally offered that, "I've made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them. I don't want to hurt their feelings on national TV."

Allow me to help you out, Mr. Wizard. I would start with Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz - the three musketeers who convinced you that Iraq was the easy war in an acceptable place and absolutely right now! How about Attorney General John Ashcroft, the protector of our liberties? And don't forget Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the protector of our environment. And Treasury Secretary John Snow, who has helped you craft the highest deficits in our history. And Labor Secretary Elaine Chou, who emasculated our overtime laws in favor of big business. We should also remember the scores of industry lobbyists that were appointed to regulate the industries for whom they used to lobby. And last but not least our esteemed Secretary of State Colin Powell. If he were truly against the war in Iraq and he really cared about the troops he used to command he would have resigned in protest instead of meekly carrying the Wizard's water in the United Nations - to his everlasting shame.

The third debate is coming up and I'm sure that we will hear more of the same. The Wizard will pontificate, fulminate and obfuscate. But in the end he will be unable to ignore one hard fact; he wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and bit him in the butt!