The Debate

Debate take 3 just ended. Perhaps I'm just excessively paranoid, but I thought it was close to a draw. The President won by a narrow margin, at best. It pains me to see him face softballs and not make the winning conservative argument. He was good (better than any previous debate this year), particularly one some questions (I thought he answered the question about the role his faith plays well, for instance), but not as good as I'd like from a Republican. I can think of at least a dozen people who could have soundly drubbed Senator Kerry, easily.

[I actually support the President. I don't think he's got the rhetorical and leadership skills that we should demand from a politician, the sort of skills that foster robust and intelligent dialectic.]

I wish the President had handled the closing statement differently, for instance. His was standard political fare. If anyone still reads this blog and is interested, I would have said something along the lines of the following:

Thank you very much. I was very happy to answer the last question, and that's the one I'd like to refer to for a moment. We live in challenging times, and many difficult and important issues demand our attention. However, my wife and children are more important to me than anything else on this Earth. I love them dearly. I am grateful for the fact that I share a home with them and that I've built my life around them. Even the life and death issues that face me as President seem to fade away when I think of my family.

In fact, it's the simple joys and freedoms of family life that drove me into politics and to the Presidency. When I support tax cuts, when I oppose government regulation of medicine and business, when I stand up for marriage, my positions are informed by the fact that there is nothing more important to me than my family life. I live my life, as do all Americans, in the home; I refuse to allow the plans of my life to be drawn in the halls of government in Washington, D.C.

That's also why I'm committed to finishing what we started in Iraq. I'm committed to stamping out the threat of terrorism by fighting tyranny with freedom. The Afghan people just participated in their first election, ever. The people of Iraq no longer fear the evil oppression of Saddam Hussein. These countries are now growing into fertile grounds for freedom. With our perseverance, and by the grace of God, the weeds of hate and the culture of death will never choke those lands again.

Please join me in continuing to fight for what is right and important. By all that you hold dear in this world, I ask you to stand with me.

May God bless you and yours, and the United States of America.