Truespeak

Due to John Kerry's surging poll numbers, President Bush has been forced to do some re-tooling. After a poor showing in the first debate last Thursday and a less than truthful performance by Vice President Cheney on Tuesday night, the President and his team know that he needs to score big in tomorrow's town hall style debate in St. Louis. With only twenty-six days to go until the election, I think it's safe to say that desperation has started to set in.

Over the past two days, George Bush has unveiled a new stump speech and what I assume will be his approach in tomorrow night's debate. I like to call it the "spaghetti test:" throw everything you've got at the wall and hope that something sticks. Here in Illinois, we're seeing this close up with Alan "I don't have a prayer in Hell of winning this election" Keyes and his attempts to smear the name of Barack Obama. Keyes has accused Obama of everything from supporting slavery to killing children. We're now seeing a similar attack from our President.

In a speech given to a (no doubt hand selected) Michigan crowd yesterday, the President brought out all the ammunition he had. And whether his claims were true or not, he threw them all at the wall in the hope that something would stick. He brought up a number of allegations that have been proven untrue. Including:

"Now [John Kerry's] proposing higher taxes -- higher taxes on about 900,000 small business owners."

According to factcheck.org, this number is a gross exaggeration:

Actually, Kerry proposes no specific tax increase on small businesses at all, and in fact is proposing some targeted tax cuts for small businesses. What the Bush ad refers to is Kerry's proposal to raise taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 per year.
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It is true that what Kerry proposes would return the top rates on individuals making over $200,000 to 35% and 39.6%, compared to the nominal top rate for large corporations, which is 35%. Where the Republican argument goes off the rails is in inflating the number of "small businesses" affected by raising rates on those high-income individuals. Republicans count any individual as a "small business owner" who reports even as little as $1 of income from a sole proprietorship (reported on schedule "C" of federal income-tax returns), a partnership, or a "Subchapter S" corporation (one with fewer than 75 stockholders). In fact, the majority of those being counted as "small businesses" are really individuals who aren't primarily business owners, and a huge number have no employees.

And this:

"Under [John Kerry's] health plan, 8 million Americans would lose the private insurance they get at work, and most would end up on a government program. Under his plan, 8 out of 10 people who get new insurance will get it from the federal government. My opponent's proposal would be the largest expansion of government-run health care ever. And when government pays the bills, government makes the rules. His plan would put bureaucrats in charge of dictating coverage, which could ration your care and limit your choice of doctors. My opponent's plan would put us on the path to 'Hillary-care.'"

Once again, let's go to Vice President Cheney's favorite website:

A Bush ad claims Kerry’s healthcare proposals would put "big government in charge" of medical decisions. In fact, Kerry's plan would leave 97% with the insurance they have now -- while up to 27 million who aren't insured would gain coverage.

Not only were the lies flying at the wall, but the golden oldies were brought out as well:

During his 20 years as a senator, my opponent hasn't had many accomplishments. Of the hundreds of bills he submitted, only five became law. One of them was ceremonial. But to be fair, he's earned a special distinction in Congress. The nonpartisan National Journal analyzed his record and named John Kerry the most liberal member of the United States Senate. And when the competition includes Ted Kennedy, that's really saying something.

Doesn't he realize that's so six months ago? Not to mention, the National Journal printed a follow-up article stating that this data was based on twenty-five of sixty-two votes during the 2003 Senate term and when examined closely, there are actually ten Senators currently serving that have a more liberal lifetime rating than Senator Kerry. And yes, one of those ten is Ted Kennedy. As I said, he's throwing it all at the wall.

In fact, President Bush has become so desperate that he's even begun flip-flopping. At one point during his speech he criticized Senator Kerry's position on Iraq.

"My opponent -- my opponent's endless back-and-forth on Iraq is part of a larger misunderstanding. In the war on terror, Senator Kerry is proposing policies and doctrines that would weaken America and make the world more dangerous."
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"My opponent has also announced the Kerry doctrine, declaring that American actions in the war on terror must pass a global test."

Just seconds later, he astoundingly says that Kerry's plan for Iraq is the same as his.

"My opponent says he has a plan for Iraq. Parts of it sound pretty familiar. It's already known as the Bush plan."

But then he criticizes the plan and says:

"[John Kerry] has send the signal that America's overriding goal in Iraq would be to leave, even if the job isn't done."

Finally, in an attempt to clear it all up he says:

"On Iraq, Senator Kerry has a strategy of retreat; I have a strategy for victory."

But I thought you said it was the same as your plan George. Now who's coming down on both sides of the issue? How low the President must feel to resort to the very tactic he's alleging his opponent is guilty of.

In yesterday's post I established that George W. Bush is a liar. I think that today we can add desperate to that description. Going into tomorrow night's debate, it's clear to me that George Bush will try anything to get himself re-elected, including lying about his opponent's record. It's a shame when the leader of the most powerful country in the world has to resort to distortions and myths to save his ass.