The debate was held October 8 at the University of St. Louis. Bush and Kerry fielded questions pre-selected by the moderator from an audience who said they had not yet decided on a candidate.

Both candidates used the report by the so-called Iraq Survey Group on “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq (see article on page 3) to bolster their arguments, the president more forcefully than Kerry.

Bush called Kerry’s charge that the UN inspectors were not allowed enough time to do their jobs “naïve and dangerous.” The report by CIA adviser Charles Duelfer showed that Saddam Hussein “was deceiving the inspectors,” Bush said.

News commentaries following the debate called it a “draw” with most noting that Bush was more assertive in the second debate, pressing at several points for rebuttals to Kerry even speaking over the moderator, Charles Gibson of ABC News, a few times.

“Tell Tony Blair we’re going it alone. Tell [Italian president] Silvio Berlusconi. Tell Alexander Kwasniewski of Poland we’re going alone,” Bush said after interrupting Gibson to respond to Kerry’s charge that his administration failed to involve Washington’s imperialist allies in any meaningful way in the war against Iraq.

Kerry reiterated that Bush had made a “catastrophic” error in judgment by invading Iraq and supposedly taking the focus off the real fight against “terrorism”—Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Bush rejoined that the “war on terrorism” is a global conflict that requires firm resolve. “It’s a fundamental misunderstanding to say that the war on terror is only Osama bin Laden,” Bush said, arguing that the conflict spans over 60 countries.

Another charge that Kerry made in the debate and in other campaign speeches is that the Bush administration had not trained enough Iraqi troops fast enough. “My opponent says he has a plan. It sounds familiar because it’s called the Bush plan,” the president chided Kerry. “We’re going to train troops, and we’ll have 125,000 trained by the end of December.”

Bush emphatically rejected any notion of restoring the military draft. Some liberal politicians, most notably Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel, have demagogically argued for reinstituting the draft to make military service “equitable” in Iraq and elsewhere. Filmmaker Michael Moore has been campaigning for the Democrats around the country promoting the myth that if re-elected the Bush administration will bring back the draft. “An all-volunteer army is best-suited to fight the new wars of the 21st century,” said Bush. The president said the U.S. military must be “lighter, and quicker” highlighting the “transformation of the U.S. military” being led by the Department of Defense.

Kerry said he opposes the draft but would add 40,000 active duty forces to the military. He gave no details on how that would be accomplished. The Pentagon is already in the process of adding 30,000 new troops.

Kerry gave a contorted answer to a question about government funding for abortion. He said as president he could not “legislate his article of faith” as a Catholic upon others. “I can talk about making other choices and about abstinence… You can take that position and not be pro-abortion.”

“Trying to decipher that,” quipped Bush, saying, “My answer is we’re not going to spend federal, taxpayers’ money on abortion.” Conceding majority support for the right to choose abortion in the United States Bush said that he, “signed the ban on partial-birth abortion” as a way to reduce abortions. “My opponent voted against the ban,” Bush charged, referring to a procedure for late-term abortions. “I’m against the partial birth abortion,” Kerry shot back explaining he would have supported the ban had it contained an exception for the health and life of the mother.

Both candidates claimed to have plans to provide affordable health-care coverage. Bush recapped his plan to establish individual “health savings accounts.” This proposal, along with individual “retirement savings accounts,” are at the heart of the rulers’ preparation for further assaults on Social Security.

Kerry said he has a plan to provide health care to more Americans but gave no details. He has been silent on the heart of Bush’s proposals, saying only he will not cut benefits for current Social Security recipients, which is also the president’s position.  
 
 
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