2004 election outlook
... threat of pre-emption, he said he would seek global consensus. In the last part of the debate, Kerry was really being harsh on Bush and I believe that Kerry was trying to get Bush in an uproar, but it’s like Bush state, “I’m a pretty calm guy. I don’t take it personally,” shows his true self and what his job means to him. Although Kerry thinks that he could have handle the terrorist attacks on September 11th, he never really showed proof that he could. The second debate which was in St. Louis Missouri was an open discussion. All subjects during this speech could be talked about. The questions were asked by the audience. I assume the people that were asking the question were either journalists or news reporters. The debate still reflected on the War in Iraq, but also addressed other issues such as health care, social issues, and education. The one question that came to my attention was that Cheryl Otis asked Kerry. She said that many parents, friends and family weren’t going vote for him because he was to “wishy-washy,” and she wanted to know what he thought of that issue. He said that “he had a plan to put people back to work,” “That’s not wishy-washy.” He also said the he planned to close loopholes that would encourage companies to go overseas. On this issue he thinks he’s right and the President is wrong. Kerry also wants to give the people with lower incomes a tax cut where Bush was giving tax cuts to people with higher incomes of at least $200 thousand or more. Bush feels that the tax cut has helped all people not just the people with higher income. Kerry and Bush both support the affirmative action policies. Kerry at first supported the War in Iraq but later said that Bush misled the nation. Again in this debate Kerry and Bush both neglected at some point to answer some questions with a direct answer and going from one thing to another. In the third debate which was in Arizona. The topic for this debate was domestic affairs. Kerry believes that Bush has put our children in unsafe situations by rushing into war and that people in our country don’t feel safe anymore. He plans to make our country safer. On the other hand, Bush handled the situation the best that he knew how at the moment by supporting the labeling of U.S. citizens as “enemy combatants.” Kerry is against labeling the U.S. citizens as “enemy combatants.” Bush supports the Patriot Act, and proposed increasing budget to enforce immigration laws. Kerry backs letting act expire without congressional approval and wants to speed immigration process, unite families, and patrol the borders. Health care was another issue in this debate. Bush supports reducing drug costs for low-income families, introduce private sector competition to reduce cost, add drug benefit to Medicare, improving current system over government-based system and would place limits on patient lawsuits against HMO’s. Kerry said he would close loopholes and use financial incentives to lower drug cost, fund all health care by rescinding tax cuts, cutting waste, tightening rules on drug companies, focus on senior citizens, let people buy into govt. system, and allow patients to sue HMO’s and collect money for damages. Another issue was civil rights. Bush backs constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. He opposes the righ...