MORE DEBATE FUN-POKING

Bush copies Gore . . . again!

Remember how George Bush, while speaking around the country in 2002, used the so-called "trifecta" joke a number of times, regarding a 2000 campaign promise only to deficit-spend if there was a war, a recession or a national emergency? (the punch-line was "Never did I imagine that I would hit the trifecta") Well if you recall, he never actually made that promise, but Al Gore did. Bush stole the line from Gore, lied about its origin, and made conservatives laugh across America.

Well, George the Echo is at it again.

Al Gore, How to Debate George Bush, op-ed, NY Times, 9/29/04:

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.

George W Bush, 2nd presidential debate, 10/8/04:

Mr. Gibson: Mr. president, minute and a half.

Mr. Bush: That answer almost made me want to scowl. He keeps talking about let the inspectors do their job. It's naïve and dangerous to say that. That's what the Duelfer report showed. He was deceiving the inspectors...

(emphasis mine in both cases)

Bush used the same line, with the same intent, as Al Gore just used. The difference, of course, is that Gore, used it 4 years after his debates as an ironic bit of humor, while Bush used the line just 8 days after the offending facial expression in question. The other difference is that while the media made a large issue over Gore's gesture, which was largely isolated, the critique on Bush's first debate performance in 2004 was not about an isolated facial expression, but his attitude and demeanor throughout the event. The 2000 issue was "the sigh"; nobody right now is talking about just "the scowl". Thus, I'm guessing that his line fell flat with most people.

Especially when just minutes later, he angrily shouted down the moderator.

UPDATE: As Wonkette put it:

Uhm. Yeah. I think I could hear crickets. I mean, that joke bombed. Bombed like a bad war.

Hehe.