HOW MANY LIGHTS?

Something odd from last night's debate, during one of Bush's responses about taxes:

GIBSON: Mr. President, 90 seconds.

BUSH: He's just not credible when he talks about being fiscally conservative. He's just not credible.

(no, not that, while yes it is funny for a man with Bush's record to say that. let's skip a little ahead in his answer...)

We've got battling green eye shades.

Somewhere in between those numbers -- and so there's a difference, what he's promised and what he can raise.

Now, either he's going to break all these wonderful promises he's told you about or he's going to raise taxes. And I suspect, given his record, he's going to raise taxes.

Is my time up yet?

GIBSON: No, you can keep going.

(LAUGHTER)

BUSH: Good. You looked at me like my clock was up.

I think that the way to grow this economy is to keep taxes low, is have an energy plan, is to have litigation reform. As I told you, we've just got a report that said over the past 13 months, we've created 1.9 million new jobs.

And so the fundamental question of this campaign is: Who's going to keep the economy growing so people can work? That's the fundamental question.

(emphasis mine) Huh?

Now let me get this straight. The Bush campaign fought very hard to get as much of what they wanted as possible into that 32-page "working agreement" for the debate formats.

One of the things they made the biggest deal about was the three colored lights that signal when the candidate was running out of time. Nobody has made such a big deal out of colored lights like that since Stanley Kowalski! They wanted the lights because they thought John Kerry's long-winded tendencies could be turned against him via the rules.

Yet between the first debate (when he said "let me finish" to no one in particular 45 seconds into a 2-minute response) and this one (when he asked if he had time left, when the multi-colored lights had yet to kick in), Bush seems to have trouble with a concept as intricate and sophisticated as three warning lights.

I'm not always into the "Bush is dumb" jokes, because they're not politically all that helpful and I don't think it's really true. But jeez, after this I wouldn't trust the guy at a busy intersection.

Then again, there are other theories.